Hiding in the Shadows
by crazy-wee-cat
Summary: "You know the weirdest thing though?" said Fred. "It was like she's been watching everything all this time, just sitting on the sidelines, like she was waiting for something..." She goes to Hogwarts, but it's not until 5th year people start to notice her.
1. Chapter 1

Just like I don't own Lord of the Rings, Mortal Instruments, Inkheart or Twilight, I don't own Harry Potter. If I did I probably wouldn't still have to go to school.

Cassy smiled at what was going on in the Gryffindor tower. It was a reasonably quiet night, for Gryffindor, but still rather loud, if that made sense. She looked back down at her book, _City of Glass, _by _Cassandra Clare. _She wasn't put off by the noise; rather it helped her to concentrate. Not many people understood how she could just sit down and read a long book, with so much going on around her. But she found it relatively easy, though sometimes looked up to see what was going on, as she just had.

She was sat on one of the most comfy seats in the Common Room, beside the fire. She was lucky to get it, but she had come up early from dinner when no-one was really about. Nobody really noticed her when they came up; they just saw a small girl sitting beside the fire and went to get different seats. She didn't mind. She was just happy to be beside there.

Just then, two people sat down on either side of her. She looked up slowly, eyebrows raised. It was the Weasley twins, Fred and George. They were funny, but had never talked to her before.

"Hello!" said one, she couldn't tell which.

"We're here to offer you something!" said the other, making it awkward as she had to turn her head to see him.

"You know it would be a lot easier if you both just sat on one side."

They looked slightly shocked, that someone so young had almost told them off. Probably mistaking her for a second or third year, it happened regularly.

"I'm a fifth year." she said, feeling slightly annoyed.

"But..." said one.

"You're so small!" said the other.

"Very observant boys. Please, it would be easier." she said, rolling her eyes.

One of them shrugged, and swapped seats with her.

"Thanks."

"Fred Weasley," said one, and the other said "George Weasley."

"Yeah." she laughed, "I know."

They raised their eyebrows, obviously wondering how she knew.

"Well you're not exactly the quietest of people are you?" she grinned, "Cassy."

"Nice to meet you Cassy. I believe you are in our little brother, Ron's, year."

"Yup."

"That must mean you're in Hermione Grangers dorm?" one asked, Cassy thought it was Fred. He said it more like a question.

"Yup." she repeated.

They looked at each other, confused expressions evident on their faces.

"Why haven't you heard of me before?" she said, the question she knew was on their minds, a playful look on her face, "I'm quiet."

"But if you're in Hermione's _dorm_..." he trailed of. "I mean you even read _books_ in your free time! She seems exactly your type..."

"I read fiction." she told them. "She reads non-fiction."

"What's that you're reading then?" she thought it was George who asked that.

"City of Glass. It's the third in the series. My mum sent it from home when my friend..." she trailed off, not really wanting to go down this road. She took a deep breath, "when my friend told her it was out."

"Ah." George looked at his twin, now looking slightly concerned. Apparently her stumble hadn't gone un-noticed.

"Are you muggle born?" asked Fred.

She nodded. "Yup. And I'm not English either."

"You're Scottish aren't you?"

"How did you guess?" she stuck her tongue out at them.

"The accent. Wait, how did you get here?"

"London isn't the center of the universe you know!" she exclaimed, feeling slightly annoyed again, "The Hogwarts express does make other stops! Or have you never noticed that?"

The boys seemed a little surprised by her outburst. Apparently they didn't know about the Scottish/English rivalry that went on in the muggle world.

"I never really noticed. Here, do you have something against England?" he asked. Cassy went bright red.

"No...It's a muggle thing. You get proud of your country easily, so you know...when people confuse Britain with England, it gets quite annoying."

"Ah." she went red again. This was the first talk she had ever _really_ had with other Gryffindors and here she was, jabbering away about muggle stuff.

"Sorry..." she muttered. "I should go now."

Before they could say anything she got up, putting her bookmark at her place in the book, and practically ran to the dorm. Apparently it was time for an early night.

*****

Fred and George stared after the fifth year, who was almost running to her dorm.

"I'm confused." muttered Fred.

"I know...what was that all about? And why have we never noticed her before?"

"I don't know...maybe we should ask Hermione. She probably knows a bit about her, even if she is really 'quiet'."

With that the two boys stood up, and walked to where Harry, Ron and Hermione were sat, doing homework.

"_Please_ Hermione! I need _help!_ I can't do it on my own. I need your awesome geniusness to help me!"

"Ron, no-one can help you now." said George, grinning, "You're past help."

"Sorry to break up this merry gathering." Fred said, sitting down on one side of Hermione, while George sat on the other. Fred almost burst out laughing when he realised this was exactly what Cassy had told them not to do.

"Oh hey, Fred, George." said Hermione, looking up. Harry nodded; he looked like he was in a bit of a mood. Ron just stared wistfully at Hermione's perfectly done essay.

"Hi guys. We actually wanted to ask you a few questions Hermione."

"Okay...shoot."

"You know that quiet girl in your dorm?"

"Oh yeah, Cassy." she said.

"How come we never noticed her before?"

"She's quiet. Quite shy. She doesn't really talk to anyone."

"We just had quite a long conversation with her."

"Really? Well, I've never really done that..."

"She likes books." said Fred, as if it was something that would save the world.

"So do quite a lot of people George."

"I'm Fred, and I know that, but she seems to be the type of person you would be friends with! And she doesn't seem quiet when you talk to her."

"Okay, Fred. Why are you telling me all this?" Fred noticed that Harry and Ron were staring at them as well, looking totally confused.

"It's just...she doesn't seem to actually have any friends. She's muggle born, and I _think_ that maybe she really misses someone back home."

"Okay..." said Hermione, looking confused.

"Who is this Cassy?" asked Ron, his brow wrinkled, trying to remember this girl.

"You know, small girl, brown hair? Seriously Ron, she's been in your classes for _five years_ and you've never even noticed her?" asked Fred, incredulous.

He shook his head. "You are _so_ self-centered." said George.

"I am not! I just had never noticed her before. And neither had you!"

"So? She's not in our year! We don't know everyone in the whole school."

There was a silence for a minute.

"You know the weirdest thing though?" said Fred. "She seemed to know _everything._ She knew who we were, who you lot were...It was like she's been watching everything all this time, just sitting on the sidelines, like she was waiting for something..."

There was another silence while everyone took this in.

"It's Hogsmeade tomorrow." said Hermione.

"Yeah..." said Fred.

"Well, maybe..."

"What?"

"I'll see you all later. Bye."

Hermione rushed off to the dorm.

"You know," said George. "That's the second girl who's run away from us tonight. We must be losing our touch."

Hope you liked :) Please review, if you read!


	2. Chapter 2

_Teehee, I know it's the same day and everything, but I just really wanted to post some more :) I hope you like this bit :) I don't own Harry Potter, and a bit of the content in this chapter._

The next morning, Hermione was trying to point out to Ron who Cassy was.

"Look, right there, sitting over there, next to Lavender!"

"Next to Lavender..." he muttered, looking confused.

"For goodness sake Ron, next to Lavender, with Seamus on her other side. Eating a piece of toast with butter on it"

"Her?" Ron asked. "But she looks like...I dunno, a third year or something."

"Well she's _not_. She's in our year. You are _so_ unobservant Ron."

She ignored him, and turned to Harry, who was looking annoyed, kind of like he really wanted to murder his cereal.

"Harry, we're meeting with people for the secret society today. Remember?"

Harry nodded and continued staring at his cereal. Hermione sighed, realising she was sitting in between one boy who was muttering about how he really wasn't unobservant, and the other looking like he would hex anyone who dared to say what a lovely day it was.

*****

Cassy wandered through Hogsmeade, part of her really wishing that she could be back in her dorm reading City of Glass. She hadn't finished it yet, and she really wanted to. It was _such_ a good book, seriously. She wished that she had a Jace...or an Edward Cullen, or a Jacob Black, or someone like Farid from Inkheart. She had a crush on about every fictional boy she had read about...it was quite crazy. She saw Luna Lovegood coming towards her, the only other girl she had ever really made friends with.

"Hello Cassy," she said smiling.

"Luna!" she grinned. "It's nice to see you."

"You too. Are you going to the secret meeting today?" _Very secretive_, Cassy thought.

"I'm not sure...Hermione asked me, I'm not sure why."

"I'm going. I think you should come."

"Okay...when is it, I forgot."

"Oh it's in about five minutes, we should go now."

She nodded, feeling butterflies in her stomach. For some reason joining this club scared her. It was making her closer to people at school, which she was perfectly happy about, but she was never good at first conversations, which was probably why Luna was the only one she ever talked to. Apart from last night, but that was just weird.

When they got there, a quiet pub that her Great Aunt (who was also a witch) had taken her to once. She didn't know why, because it was a really weird pub, full of creepy witches and wizards. When she walked in, she saw quite a big gathering of Hogwarts students. She saw at the front, Ron, Hermione and Harry. Harry looked shocked that so many people were here, and nervous, Hermione looked terrified about Harrys reaction to all this, and Ron was staring at Cassy, looking totally bemused. That was weird…

Fred (she _thought_ it was Fred) got everyone butter beers, and everyone gave in the money. Cassy was watching Harry, Hermione and Ron up front. Harry said something to Hermione quietly. She told him something, obviously just trying to calm him down. After a minute or two, once everyone had sat down, Hermione started talking.

"Er…Well – er – hi." She paused, "Well…erm…well, you know why you're here. Er,…well, Harry her had the idea – I mean, I had the idea – that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts – and I mean really study it, not the rubbish Umbridge has been doing with us, because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Here, here," said Anthony Goldstein, and Hermione smiled.

"Well I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands. And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory, but doing the real spells –"

"You want to pass your Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL too, though, I bet?" said Michael Corner.

"Of course I do. But more than that, I want to be properly trained in defence because…because…" she took a deep breath, "because Lord Voldemort is back."

There was a big reaction to that, about half the room jumped. Cassy sat where she was; she wasn't all that scared of a _name_.

"Well…that's the plan, anyway," Hermione said, "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to –"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" asked that idiot blond, Zacharias Smith.

"Well Dumbledore believes it –" Hermione began.

"You mean, Dumbledore believes _him,"_ he said, nodding at Harry.

"Who are _you_?" Ron said, rudely. Cassy didn't blame him, Smith was annoying.

"Zacharias Smith, and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"Look, that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about –"

"It's okay, Hermione." Harry said, looking annoyed. After a short pause, he said "What makes me say You-Know-Who's back? I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me, and I'm not wasting am afternoon trying to convince anyone."

"All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggorys body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know –" _That idiot, _thought Cassy, _he should be in Slytherin, what's he trying to do, pick up tips or something. _She decided it was time to intervene.

"Smith, do us all a favour, and shut up. Harry is not here to give you tips on how to murder people, and if you're only here to grill him on what happened, it's obvious that is _not_ gonna happen, so you might as well leave. We're here to learn to protect ourselves, not annoy everyone to death!"

The whole room was silent. Everyone was staring at her, some people with not enough courtesy to even close their mouths. She went bright red, but kept up her glare. Hermione was the first to recover.

"So. So…like I was saying…if you want to learn some defence, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet and where we're going to –"

"Is it true, that you can produce a Patronus?" Cassy smiled slightly, she had seen it before, in third year, she had been walking past the Defence classroom, and Harry and Lupin had been practising in there. Harry didn't know this though.

"Yeah," Harry said, in a slightly defensive voice.

"A corporeal Patronus?"

"We – you don't know Madame Bones, do you?" he asked.

"She's my auntie," she said, smiling, "I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So – is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?"

"Yes," said Harry.

"Blimey Harry! I never knew that!" said Lee Jordan.

"Mum told Ron not to spread it around. She said you got enough attention as it was." said Fred, grinning.

"She's not wrong," Harry mumbled, and Cassy and a few others chuckled.

"And did you kill a Basilisk with the sword in Dumbledore's office? That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me last year…" asked Terry Boot.

"Er – yeah, I did, yeah."

"And in our first year," said Neville, "he saved that Philological Stone –"

"Philosopher's," hissed Hermione,

"Yes, that – from You-Know-Who."

The conversation went on for a while, eventually not coming to any decisions on where or when to have the meeting. Hermione had pulled out a piece of parchment, and everyone had to sign it. Cassy knew that there was most likely some kind of charm on it, to stop you telling anyone about it. Everyone began to leave, and Cassy stood up, to walk out, on her own, as Luna had gone with Ginny.

"Um, Cassy?" she turned round, to see Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." said Harry, "For standing up for me earlier…It was nice of you."

"Don't worry about it. Smith needed someone shutting him up, and nobody else was doing it, so I thought I might as well."

"Well, thanks."

She smiled, and turned round again, to walk out.

"Cassy?"

"Yeah?" she said, swinging her body back round to face them.

"Do you wanna walk back to the castle with us?"

Cassy grinned, "Okay. Thanks."

They walked for a bit, in silence, and to be very honest it was a bit awkward, the way it was when you met new people. Well not exactly new, but close enough.

"So, are you from around here?" asked Hermione. _Oh no, here we go again…_she thought.

"Um, yeah, I'm from Scotland."

"Cool."

They lapsed into silence again.

"The conversation is simply blooming." She muttered. The others looked surprised, that quiet Cassy was talking.

"Sorry." She burst out laughing.

"It's…okay." said Harry. Ron was staring at her, totally bemused again.

_Great, _she thought, _He's staring again._

Hermione elbowed Ron, in a way that was probably meant to be conspicuous, but really wasn't.

Cassy giggled, and muttered, "Subtle…"

Oh no, she'd done it again. She should really learn to keep her mouth shut. Harry started laughing, and then Hermione joined. Ron still looked totally perplexed, but she got the feeling that he was that type of person.

"Sorry…I'm a bit…strange."

"No you're not!" said Hermione, obviously trying to comfort her.

"No, I like being strange. It makes life a bit more exciting."

"Fair enough."

"Yeah…"  
"That Zacharias bloke's a wart." stated Ron, glaring at the figure of Smith in the distance. Cassy couldn't help but agree. He really was.

"I don't like him much either. But he overheard me talking to Ernie and Hannah at the Hufflepuff table and he seemed really interested in coming, so what could I say? But the more people the better really – I mean, Michael Corner and his friends wouldn't have come if he hadn't been going out with Ginny -"

"He's WHAT?" Ron spluttered, his ears going bright red. "She's going out with – my sister's going – what d'you mean Michael Corner?"

"Well, that's why he and his friends came, I think – well they're obviously interested in learning defence, but if Ginny hadn't told Michael what was going on -"

"When did this – when did she -?"

"They met at the Yule Ball and got together at the end of last year."

"Which one was Michael Corner?"

"The dark one,"

"I didn't like him," said Ron at once.

"Big surprise," Hermione said quietly. Cassy and Harry had to stifle giggles.

"But, I thought Ginny fancied Harry!" said Ron.

Hermione shook her head, "Ginny _used_ to fancy Harry, but she gave up on him months ago. Not that she doesn't like you of course," she added, to Harry.

"So that's why she talks now?" said Harry, "She never used to talk in front of me."

"Exactly. Anyway, enough about Michael and Ginny. What about Cho and you, Harry?"

"What d'you mean?" Harry asked quickly, his face resembling a tomato.

"Well, she just couldn't keep her eyes off you, could she?"

Harry grinned the whole way home after that.

_:) I hope you liked that bit! Please review, you know, just to make me happy!_


	3. Chapter 3

_New bit! I don't own Harry Potter, and some of the content in this chapter...:( It's so sad._

Cassy came into the Gryffindor common room, the next day, to do some catching up on her homework. There was a huge crowd, and Harry and Ron were standing in the middle of it, muttering darkly.

"What's going on?" she asked, pushing her way up to them.

Harry didn't say anything, just pointed at the sheet of parchment on the notice board.

_BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS_

_All student organisations, societies, teams, groups and clubs are henceforth disbanded._

_An organisation, society, team, group or club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students._

_Permission to reform may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge)_

_No student organisation, society, team, group or club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor._

_Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, and organisation, society, team, group or club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled._

_The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-four._

_Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor_

"Does this mean they're going to shut down the Gobstones Club?" a second year asked his friend.

"I reckon you'll be okay with Gobstones." Ron said, "I don't think we're going to be as lucky though, do you?" he said to me and Harry.

"This can't be a coincidence." Cassy said. "She knows."

"She can't!" said Ron.

"There were people listening in at the pub. And let's face it, we don't know how many of the people who turned up we can trust...any of them could have run off and told Umbridge..." said Harry, looking downcast.

"Zacharias Smith." said Ron straight away, "Or Michael Corner -"

"I wonder if Hermione's seen this." Harry said, cutting over Ron.

"Let's go tell her," Ron said, running off to the girls dorms. Cassy was about to tell them that they couldn't go up there, but decided it would me more amusing just to let them go. As they got to about the sixth step, as she had known would happen, a high wailing noise made itself known, and the stairs transformed into a slide. The boys seemed to run in mid air for a second, totally cartoon-like, and then fall and slide back down. Cassy burst out laughing, and walked over to help them up.

"You knew that would happen." Ron grumbled. She just nodded, unable to speak because she was laughing so much.

"Your...faces!" she gasped through her laughter. "Don't...worry...I'll go get...her..."

Still chuckling, she ran up the stairs (the slide had transformed back into stairs when she had come to it), and into her dorm.

Hermione was sitting reading a book on her bed. She looked up when Cassy came in.

"Hey Cassy."

"Hi...the boys want to talk."

"'Kay. One sec."

"It's pretty important." Cassy had stopped laughing now, remembering the situation at hand,

Once the news had been delivered to Hermione, people kept on coming up to Harry, and asking what they were going to do.

"What are we going to do?" was the general question. The answer was always:

"We're going to do it anyway, of course."

*****

The days passed, and still they had nowhere to meet. Umbridge had decided to sit in on classes to see how well the teachers were teaching. Cassy found Snapes shot at it very amusing indeed. Although, she thought that he probably didn't enjoy it as much as she did.

*****

Cassy sat on the couch, reading, not unlike the first time Fred and George had talked to her. Except this time she was reading _The Fellowship of the Ring, _by _JRR Tolkien_. It was a fantastic book, and she actually had the attention span to read it at that point. Hermione was scowling at the door that Fred and George had just left through, and Ron was dozing in his chair. His head suddenly shot up, and looking at the fire said:

"Sirius!"

Everyone looked at the fire, and then as if realising something looked at Cassy.

"S'all right." she said, in a bored voice, "I know the story already."

"How?" asked Harry, looking confused.

She tapped her nose, grinning. "What, I didn't just appear this year. I was here the whole time, just because you didn't notice me." she stuck her tongue out at him.

"But-"

"Drop it Harry." said Ron.

Sirius looked slightly flabbergasted. "Nice to see you too, kids."

Harry laughed, "Hey Sirius," he knelt down on the carpet, and Ron and Hermione joined them, as well as Cassy, though she did it slightly hesitantly. The man's face in the fire was gaunt, but his hair was clean and well groomed. He was very thin, and she thought that it was probably the years in Azkaban that had done this to him.

"I believe I haven't met your friend...?" said Sirius glancing at Cassy.

"Oh, Sirius, this is Cassy. Cassy, apparently you already know who this is." said Harry.

Cassy smiled, "Nice to meet you Sirius. It's cool to finally meet you." as if as an afterthought she added jokingly, "I'm your biggest fan."

Sirius looked slightly surprised at her strange attempt at humour, "Um, nice to meet you too..."

She giggled, it was always amusing to confuse people like that.

"Anyway, how're things?" asked Sirius.

"Not that good." said Harry, "The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams -"

"Or secret Defence Against the Dark Arts groups?" said Sirius. Cassy giggled, mainly because of the looks on the others faces.

"How did you know about that?" Harry demanded.

"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully. The Hog's Head, I ask you." but he was grinning.

"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks!" said Hermione, "That's always packed with people."

"Which means you would have been harder to overhear," said Sirius, "You've got a lot to learn Hermione."

"Who overheard us?" asked Cassy.

"Mundungus. Do you know who Mundungus is?" he asked her.

She grinned, "I've heard of him."

"Anyway, he was the witch under the veil."

"What was he doing in the Hog's Head?" asked Harry.

"Keeping an eye on you," said Sirius, looking seriously tempted to say "_Duh!"._

"I'm still being followed?" Harry exclaimed, angrily.

"Yeah you are." said Sirius, "And just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you do on your weekend off is organise an illegal defence group."

Cassy thought he looked rather proud.

"Anyway, first things first, I have a message to pass on to you Ron, from your mother."

"Oh yeah?" said Ron.

"She says on no account whatsoever, are you to take part in an illegal secret Defence Against the Dark Arts group. She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also advises Harry and Hermione not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over either of them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. And, Cassy, I'm sure that if she knew about you, she would be telling you the same. She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted, you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."

"Doing what?"

"Never you mind. Anyway, make sure you tell her I passed it on, because I don't think she trusts me to."

There was a pause.

"So, you want me to say I'm not going to take art in the Defence group?" he said finally.

"Me? Certainly not!" said Sirius, looking surprised. "I think it's an excellent idea!"

"You do?" asked Harry, looking delighted.

"Of course I do..."

At some point on this conversation, Cassy had fallen asleep leaning against the couch.

"So, how come I haven't seen her before?" asked Sirius, looking at the sleeping Cassy.

"We only noticed her this year." said Harry, "It's crazy, she was so shy that she didn't talk to anyone, and suddenly Fred and George talked to her, and then she stood up for me in the Hogs Head -"

"Oh so _that's_ who it was!" exclaimed Sirius, "Dung had said somebody stood up for you, but said he had never seen her before."

"Well, anyway, do you know where we can do the group?"

"Shrieking Shack?" he suggested.

Hermione snorted.

"What?" asked Sirius.

"Sirius, you seem to be forgetting the fact that when _you_ did it, there were four of you. There are _twenty nine_ of us!"

"Good point. Well I'm sure you'll come up with something."

"Yeah..."

"Well, I'll have a think and get back to -" he broke off, gasped, and disappeared.

"Why did he -?"

Hermione gasped, and leapt to her feet, staring at the fire. A hand had appeared among the flames, it was groping as though trying to catch hold of something. It was a stubby, short fingered hand, covered in ugly old fashioned rings.

They ran for it, Hermione only stopping to wake Cassy up.

"_Cassy_! Wake up!" she whispered fiercely.

"Whassamatter?"

"Come _on!"_ Cassy saw the fire, and in a sudden burst of adrenalin, ran to the dorm.

_Hope you liked! Please review, whether you hated it, or liked it. :)_


	4. Chapter 4

_Thank you for the story alerts guys...:) I don't own Harry Potter...:( _

Cassy woke up the next day, feeling like she could sleep for another hour. But she had classes, so she couldn't. Yawning, she stood up, quickly got changed, and ran down to breakfast, tying her hair in pleats as she went.

She had DADA first, much to her annoyance. She wondered if she would even be able to stay awake in it, no matter do any work. But, she reasoned, they would probably just be reading, so it would be okay, after all.

She only just got to class on time, in a thoroughly bad mood. To add to her annoyance, she had acquired a thumping head ache. So she banged her bag down harder than necessary when she got to her desk, earning her a glare from Umbridge. She almost glared straight back, but decided not too, she didn't really want a detention that night.

"Good morning class," she said in that sickly sweet voice, that made Cassy just want to hit her "Please open your books at page one, two, o." _Because she's incapable of saying one hundred and twenty, _thought Cassy. But she did as she was told and started reading.

Suddenly realising they were reading about _werewolves_, she gave a small gasp of indignation.

"Yes?" said Umbridge looking at her closely. "Is there something wrong?"

"Well," said Cassy, wanting to vent her anger, but trying also to be careful not to get a detention, "We're reading about _werewolves."_

"And?" she asked.

"Well, we did this with Professor Snape in our third year, and it's out OWL year now, and we're meant to be learning about _spells_ and ways to _defend_ ourselves in our OWL year, not about magical creatures like _werewolves_."

"Are you questioning my teaching, Miss...?"

"Marshall."

"Are you questioning my teaching, Miss Marshall?"

"Well, yeah." _ I would have thought that that was obvious, _she thought to herself.

"And what do you think gives you the right to question my teaching?"

"Well being the _pupil_, I think I have the right to question your ability as a teacher."

"Detention, Miss Marshall, tonight, seven o'clock, my office."

"But Professor, that's not fair," Cassy turned round to see who was talking, and it was Harry.

"Mr Potter, you will put your hand up when you want to speak." The whole class was staring, and had been for the last couple of minutes. Harry glared at her, but grudgingly stuck his hand in the air.

"Yes, Mr Potter?"

"You can't give Cassy detention, it's not fair."

"And why not?"

"Well," said Harry with a sigh, "She does have a point. We're meant to be learning about spells, not animals. We need to know decent spells, or we won't be safe!"

"Mr Potter, detention, I have told you time and time again, we are perfectly safe."

Harry looked like he was about to protest, but Hermione seemed to stop him.

"Good. Now, back to your work."

*****

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry Harry!" Cassy exclaimed as soon as the lesson was finished.

"S'okay." he said, "At least now you don't have to do detention on your own."

"But you shouldn't have to do it as well...you were sticking up for me."

"I was returning a favour."

"But when I did that for you...there was no consequences!"

"Oh yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you about that," he paused, "Right, be careful of Smith. I know he's an idiot, but he's a decent wizard, and I heard that he is _not_ happy about what you said to him that day. So, watch out, as soon as he has you on your own, he'll probably try and hex you or something, and then there _will_ be consequences for what you did for me."

"Thanks." she smiled.

"POTTER!"

"Oh my goodness, what _now_?" muttered Harry, turning around to see McGonagall storming up to the two of them. "Yes Professor?"

"I was just talking to Professor Umbridge, _Potter._ She says that you have got detention tonight, _again. _What did I _just_ tell you not to do?"

"I'm sorry, but -"

"He was sticking up for me." said Cassy.

"What...and why would he need to stick up for you?"

"I was being...insolent, I suppose. Umbridge didn't like it."

"You weren't being insolent, she was asking for it." said Harry.

"_Potter," _McGonagall warned.

"Sorry."

"Well, don't you dare get another detention, or I will...do something."

She stalked off.

"How threatening. She will...do something."

Harry laughed, but Cassy could tell his heart really wasn't in it.

*****

At seven o'clock sharp, Cassy and Harry found themselves standing outside Umbridge's door. Harry knocked.

"Come in," Cassy made a face, and Harry chuckled lightly. They walked in, and sat at separate desks, each on the opposite side of the room for the other.

"You're both going to be writing lines for me today. Mr Potter, you know what to do, _I must not tell lies, _as usual." Harry nodded, and started writing with the quill on his desk, wincing slightly. Cassy wondered why, but decided to pay attention to Umbridge. She could ask Harry what was wrong after the detention. "And Miss Marshall, I would like you to write _I will not be cheeky."_

"How many times?" she asked.

"Until I see fit for you to stop."

"You haven't given me any ink." she said.

"Oh, you won't need any."

Cassy shrugged, and put the quill down on the parchment.

_I will not be cheeky_, she wrote, noticing dully that the ink was red.

_I will not be cheeky._

_I will not be cheeky, _this was really rather tedious, she hadn't even been cheeky,

_I will not be cheeky._ Cassy's hand was starting to hurt a little.

_I will not be cheeky._ She rubbed her hand, and started when she felt something wet on it. Lifting her hand off, she realised that now engraven lightly in her hand it said:

_I will not be cheeky._

Cassy gasped out loud. That evil gargoyle! That...that bloodthirsty woman! She was making her _carve_ her hand. That was ridiculous! She met Harrys eyes across the room, and he nodded his head slightly, his eyes sad.

The time passed slowly, and Cassy was proud to say that she didn't make a noise once. She would _not_ give that woman what she wanted. She did wince quite a bit though. Finally, when the room had grown dim, and she could see that the sky was black from through the window, Umbridge spoke.

"Hands."

Harry and Cassy both silently showed their red, bleeding, irritated hands. She nodded curtly.

"Come back tomorrow, same time. We need a little longer for the message to sink in."

"That foul gargoyle!" exclaimed Cassy, as soon as they were out of earshot. "That bloodthirsty...thing!"

"I know..."

"Has she been doing this to you the whole time?"

Harry nodded. "Hermione told me to tell someone, but I didn't want to. I suppose you can if you want."

She shook her head. She hated causing a fuss, "Besides, that would just be giving her what she wants. And it probably wouldn't help, there would just be a new Educational Decree, or something."

Harry nodded his agreement.

"I still can't believe..."

"I know, it really stings doesn't it?"

Cassy nodded, willing herself not to cry, but she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She stared at the ground, bright red and biting her lip.

"You okay?" asked Harry, concerned.

She nodded, still staring at the ground. He looked at her closely, just as a single tear rolled down her cheek. _Oh great,_ she thought to herself. Harry pulled her into a hug.

"It's okay, don't worry. It'll get better."

"I'm not crying because it's sore...I'm crying because I'm angry." She muttered, embarrassed. Another one of her annoying perks. "One time in primary I got picked for the cross country team, and I cried because they told me I had to."

"Don't you like sport?" he asked.

"Hate it."

"Even Quidditch?"

She laughed, "That's the exception."

"You any good?" he asked.

"I've never played."

He looked slightly shocked, and then seemed to remember that not everyone was on the team. "Well...we'll have to get you to play at some point."

They got inside, but Harry stopped and sat down in the quiet common room.

"Aren't you coming?" asked Cassy.

"I have some homework to do. I'll see you later."

"'Kay, see ya..."

_Hope you liked! Please review...just for me :)_


	5. Chapter 5

_Thanks for the reviews! :) I don't like this bit as much, but it has to be put in, you know, because I suppose it is quite important...but I wanna hurry up and get to a bit later on. Oh well...I'm going away tomorrow for two weeks, so there probably won't be any more updates for a wee while...sorry! I don't own Harry Potter, and a bit in this chapter...:(_

Cassy sat with Hermione in the dorm, the next evening after detention. Lavender and Parvati were asleep, and the other two girls were sitting in their beds, talking quietly.

"We've got a meeting place for the defence group. Harry just found it, tonight." Hermione told the other girl.

"Really? That's great! Where is it?"

"The Room of Requirement." seeing the look on Cassy's face she quickly explained what it was and how it worked. "...and we've got our first meeting tomorrow night."

"Cool!"

"Yeah, it's quite exciting."

The were silent for a while, both anticipating the next night.

"So," said Cassy suddenly, a question forming in her head, "If you had one wish, what would you wish for?"

"What?"

"You know like in fairy tales, you have the genies and stuff? And they give you wishes?" Hermione nodded, "Well, if you had one wish, what would you wish for?"

Hermione thought for a moment, and then said, "I would wish that I could see the future."

"Why?"

"Well, do you ever worry about what life is going to be like when we leave school? What job will we get, who will we marry, will we even marry anyone, you know, that kind of stuff."

Cassy nodded, "I know what you mean."

"What would you wish for?"

She went bright red, and looked down.

"What?" Hermione laughed, "Come on, it can't be that embarrassing."

"A guy..." she muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"I would wish for a guy who loved me, and I loved him back," Cassy had turned into the deepest shade of red possible, but she stared at Hermione defiantly, "For a guy who was just perfect, who gave the best hugs, and smiled all the time, who did just little things that made me happy. Who let me wear his jumpers, the ones that smelt of him, but were way to big for me. Who stood up for me, when the world was against me. Who would let me fight my own battles, but would always be there when I needed him..." Cassy laughed suddenly, "But like that would happen, right? The possibility of getting a guy like that...well, you would have to be fictional."

Hermione got the impression that that laugh was slightly bittersweet. She changed the subject quickly.

"How was detention?"

"It was okay," Cassy lied. In truth it had actually been absolute torture, but she wasn't about to tell Hermione that.

"Did she make you write lines with those horrid quills?" she asked.

"How did you know about them?" she was sure Hermione had never had detention in her life.

"I saw Harry's hand once and got the truth out of him...he's never been good at lying. What did she make you write?"

"_I must not be cheeky._ My parents are gonna think I'm self harming..."

"Well, I hate to say it, but you knew the risk..."

"What, getting my hand sliced open?"

"Well, not quite, but still..."

"It was worth it. I just wished I could have had more of a go at her. I can't wait till tomorrow night, finally being able to do _something_ against that woman."

"I know..." Hermione sighed, looking annoyed, "She's such a twat."

"A twat?" said Cassy, giggling slightly.

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm gonna go to sleep now...night."

"Goodnight."

*****

Cassy felt great all through the next day, knowing that that night they would be making a stand against Umbridge. As she sat in Defence class, pretending to read about werewolves, she was secretly imagining what they would do that night.

She walked into the Room of Requirement with Luna, and stared around her. The place was fantastic, absolutely perfect for what they wanted to do. Once everyone was there, Harry went to the door and locked it, and everybody fell silent.

"Well," said Harry, looking slightly nervous. "This is the place we've found for the practise sessions, and you've – er - obviously found it okay."

"Its fantastic" said Cho.

"It's bizarre." said Fred, frowning, "We once hid from Filch in here, remember George? But it was just a broom cupboard then."

"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe Glass.

"Dark Detectors. Basically they all show when the dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled..." he gazed into the glass for a moment, before turning back to the crowd. "Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and – er – What Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader."

"Harry's leader." said Cho immediately, and Harry turned red.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly. It makes it formal and gives him authority. So – everyone who thinks Harry ought to be leader?"

Everybody raised their hand.

"Er – right, thanks. And – _what_ Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name. It would promote a feeling of team spirit, and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge-League?" said Angelina.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.

"It _is_ rather catchy." Cassy said, quietly, but surprisingly people heard. Most looked like they didn't know whether to laugh or not.

"I was thinking more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meeting." said Hermione, frowning.

"The Defence Association? The DA for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah the DA's good." said Ginny, "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

Everyone laughed.

"All in favour of the DA? That's a majority, motion passed!" said Hermione.

"Right," said Harry, "shall we get to practising then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is _Expelliarmus_, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic, but I've found it really useful -"

"Oh, _please_." said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes. "I don't think _Expelliarmus _is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?" Once again, Cassy felt the need to slap him.

"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly, "It saved my life in June. But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave."

Cassy was silently praying he would leave, but he didn't. _Idiot, _she thought.

Everyone divided into pairs, Cassy went with Neville, and managed to disarm him quickly. The room was very quickly full of flying wands, and Harry wandered around, helping people with techniques. The night went very fast, and before she knew it, it was time to go. They decided to meet again the next Wednesday night, and everyone left.

*****

Time passed, and the DA meetings continued. Hermione figured out a way to communicate with each other, using galleons, which was very clever indeed. The first match of the Quidditch season came up, and everybody was excited to see how it would turn out. Ron was particularly nervous, and Harry was doing his best to calm him down.

The day of the match dawned, and Cassy found herself in the crowds next to Luna, Ginny, and Hermione the first of which was wearing an abstract hat in the shape of a lion, that roared rather realistically when Luna wanted it to. She kept on getting odd glances, but didn't seem to pay attention to them, apparently she was used to that type of thing. The match was not going to well, it looked like Ron was not doing well with the pressure, missing almost every single Quaffle that flew to him. The Slytherins were all singing a ridiculous song about Ron, that really wasn't helping either.

But suddenly, Harry dived, obviously he had seen the Snitch. The crowd were all on their feet, cheering, and Malfoy was at Harry's side in an instant, both of their arms outstretched, and Harry caught the Snitch! Everyone was cheering loudly, but then a bludger was hit in Harry's direction, and it hit him on the back. The crowd booed loudly, but luckily he seemed to be all right.

The girls all cheered, but Hermione noticed something.

"What's going on down there?" she asked, pointing to the pitch. it seemed that the entire Gryffindor team were holding back Fred and George, from attacking Malfoy. He said something else to them, and suddenly Harry and George were running at him, and then they were fighting with him suddenly.

"_What are they doing?"_ screamed Ginny, "The _idiots!" _

"Look at Umbridge." Cassy said, pointing to the teachers bit of the crowd. She was smirking to herself, and as they watched, she stood up.

"She's going to interfere." said Hermione.

"This can't be good." said Cassy, as Ginny groaned.

"Knowing that toad, she'll probably get them into big trouble."

"They're already in big trouble," Cassy said, shaking her head. "She'll just make it worse."

"As per usual."

It turned out that she did make it worse. A lot worse than was expected.

"_Banned?" _said Ginny, looking shocked.

"That woman is foul." said Cassy, looking disgusted. "I can't believe her."

Harry just shook his head, looking depressed. She felt for him, she really did, but what could she do? It's not as if she could go and tell Umbridge she was a very naughty girl, and send her back home to the Ministry. But she still wished she could make him feel better, he looked so sad.

_Well, I hope you liked it! Please review, as usual :)_


	6. Chapter 6

Next bit!! :)

Harry came back from the last DA meeting before Christmas looking in a state of shock.

"What kept you?" asked Ron. When Harry didn't answer, Hermione and Cassy looked at each other, and then back at him.

"Are you all right Harry?" asked Cassy.

He shrugged slightly. Cassy grinned at Hermione.

"Is it Cho?" asked Hermione, "Did she corner you after the meeting?" Harry nodded, and Ron sniggered.

"So – er – what did she want?" asked Ron, casually.

"She....she – er -"

"Did you kiss?" asked Cassy, bluntly.

Ron sat up so fast he sent his ink bottle flying all over the rug.

"Well?"

He nodded.

"HA!"

Harry grinned reluctantly as he watched Ron roll around laughing.

"Well?" Ron asked, once he had finished laughing, "How was it?"

"Wet." said Harry. "Because she was crying." he added once he saw Ron's incredulous expression.

"Oh. Are you that bad at kissing?"

"Dunno. Maybe I am." he looked slightly worried.

"Of course you're not." said Cassy, rolling her eyes at Ron.

"How do you know?"

"Because Cho spends half her time crying these days." said Hermione, "She does it at mealtimes, in the loo's, all over the place."

"You'd think a bit of kissing would cheer her up."

"Ron, you are the most insensitive wart I have ever had the misfortune to meet."

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Ron indignantly, "What sort of person cries when someone's kissing them?"

"Yeah. Who does?" asked Harry.

"Don't you understand how Cho's feeling at the moment?"

"No." said the boys together. Cassy rolled her eyes, and went back to her Potions essay. She noticed that Hermione had stopped talking and looked up again.

"One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode." said Ron, looking perplexed.

"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have." said Hermione, picking up her quill again.

"Don't worry Ron, girls tend to think more than boys." said Cassy.

"She was the one who started it," said Harry, "I wouldn't've – she just sort of came at me – and next thing she's crying all over me – I just didn't know what to do -" Cassy couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

"Don't blame you mate."

"You just had to be nice to her," said Hermione, "You were, weren't you?"

"Well...I sort of – patted her on the back a bit."

"Well, I suppose it could have been worse. Are you going to see her again?"

"I'll have to, won't I? We've got DA meetings, haven't we?"

"She means did you ask her out, Harry?" said Cassy sighing.

Harry was silent for a while.

"Oh well, you'll have plenty of opportunities to ask her."

"What if he doesn't want to ask her?" said Ron.

"Don't be silly," said Hermione, "Harry's liked her for ages, haven't you Harry?"

He did not answer, and Cassy went back to her essay, not listening to Ron and Hermione talking. Eventually Hermione went to bed, and Cassy decided to join her.

*****

Cassy and Hermione sat at the breakfast table the next day, looking up and down it for Harry and Ron. They hadn't appeared.

"Cassy," said Hermione, checking the table again, "None of the Weasley's are here either. Do you think something has happened?"  
Cassy looked up the table again, and saw that she was speaking the truth. "What could possibly have happened overnight?"

"Maybe someone got sick...Ginny, or Fred or someone."

"Maybe..." Cassy didn't admit it, but she seriously doubted it, and she saw by the look on Hermione's face that she didn't really believe it either.

"We need to get to class...we have Transfiguration, maybe Professor McGonagall will know what happened." said Hermione. Cassy could think of no other suggestion so she followed Hermione to the classroom.

But by the end of the lesson they were beginning to lose hope. As everyone left though, McGonagall called Hermione to talk to her.

"Can Cassy come too?" she asked, quickly. McGonagall nodded, and the two came forward to talk.

"There was an..." she seemed to be searching for the right word, "incident last night. Mr Weasley has been badly hurt, and that is why Harry and Ron and the other Weasley's are not here today. They have gone to -" she glanced at Cassy "-Headquarters."

"I don't understand." said Cassy, "Why has Harry gone too?"

"He saw it happen, didn't he?" asked Hermione.

McGonagall nodded. "You need to get to your next class.

"That's awful." said Cassy as they walked out.

"I'm sure he'll be fine though, if they found out about it that quickly."

"What did you mean by Harry "saw it happen"?"

"He sees things," she said, obviously trying to find the right words, "like, through his scar he has some connection to Voldemort, and can see what he's doing sometimes. I expect that's what happened."

"Oh right. I suppose that makes sense...kinda."

She smiled. "We need to get to Potions."

"Joy....potions." said Cassy, groaning. Hermione laughed.

*****

Cassy stared out the window.

"We're almost at my stop." she said to Hermione.

"That was quick." she said, smiling.

"I don't live that far away.." Cassy smiled, "Are you going to see Harry and Ron?"

"Yeah," Hermione said, nodding, "I was meant to be going skiing, but it's really not my thing. I'm sure you'd be welcome to come, Mrs Weasley loves visitors."

"Thanks, but I can't. The holiday's are the only times I get to see my friend from primary. I miss her a lot at Hogwarts."

"Isn't it hard, not being able to tell her your secret?"

"Very."

"You know you could always tell her."

"I don't think I'm allowed."

"You are. You're allowed to tell people who are close to you, and can keep a secret. Is she close to you?"

"Very."

"Well, there you go. You should tell her."

"Yeah..." said Cassy, thinking, "Yeah, you know what, I think I will. I hate keeping secrets from her, and it means we could communicate during term time. Thanks Hermione!"

She got off the train, waving goodbye, and ran to hug her parents who were waiting for her.

"Hey, mum, hey dad!"

"Hey pet," said her dad, smiling.

*****

Cassy walked out her house, calling bye to her mum – her dad was out at work. She was going to see Keira, her friend. She knocked on the door, twiddling her fingers anxiously, terrified about what her reaction would be when she told her. The door opened.

"Cassy!" exclaimed her friend.

"Keira!" she said, and gave her a huge hug.

"How are you?"

"I am _good!_ How are you?"

"I'm good too! Oh my goodness, I missed you so much!"

"Same! Life sucks without you!"

Keira laughed, "Well, it is me."

"So, what's been happening? Are all the boys at school still idiots?"

"Totally, did you think that would change?"

"Well, I hoped. You know, seeing as they had started doing exams and stuff...How are the exams going by the way?"

"All right...prelims are coming up pretty soon."

"Fun." they were in her room by this point.

"Do you have to do exams at your school?"

"Yeah, at the end of each year. This year we have important ones too." _okay, _thought Cassy, _this is it, I have to tell her, _"Listen, there's something I need to tell you. About my school."

"Okay."

"Well, um, my school is a bit different from yours. Um, okay this is hard to tell you," she took a deep breath, "my school is a school for witches and wizards. I am a witch."

Keira didn't look perturbed by the news at all. In fact, she was looking like it was something that you would tell her everyday.

"Wait, why don't you look surprised? I'm not joking, you know!"

"I know."

"Then...why aren't you like staring at me like I'm a freak?"

"Because I already know you're a freak," she stuck her tongue out at the other girl, "And besides, my parents are magical. I know all about the wizarding world. I worked out you had gone to Hogwarts when you left in Primary six, with like, no warning, and then couldn't tell me where your school _was._ Also, you said you couldn't send me letters, and you couldn't email me. It was pretty obvious."

"Then why aren't-"

"Because I'm a squib."

"You're a -"

"Yes, a squib."

"That..."

"Yeah, I know, it sucks."

"No...it's not all bad. I mean...you can still see dementors..." Cassy internally kicked herself, "Okay, so that was a really bad example."

"Yeah, it really was. Don't worry, I've had practically my whole life to get used to it."

Please review, just to make me happy :)


	7. Chapter 7

I still don't own Harry Potter...

Cassy's holidays went fast. She spent most of the time with Keira, and some friends from school and youth groups she went to before she left. She also discovered that Keira now had a boyfriend, called Jacob. Cassy was very happy for her, and tended to squeak whenever she saw them together.

Before she knew it though, Cassy was using Keiras families flu-network to travel back to Hogwarts. She was going back a few days early, as her parents were going away on their own for a bit. She really didn't understand why they couldn't just go some other weekend _during_ term time, but parents were weird that way. Always were, and always would be. She wondered if she would change her mind about it when she was a parent. If she ever would be a parent.

She stepped into the fire, waved goodbye to Keira, and her parents, who were watching the whole scene with an expression of mild interest, and dropped the flu powder into the fire shouting:

"Hogwarts!"

She landed, falling into Professor McGonagall's office flat on her face. Always the graceful one, she was...

"Good evening Miss Marshall. Try not to get too much ash on the carpet."

"Sorry, Professor. Good evening Professor."

Bright red, she walked up to her dorm, seeing that her trunk had already been delivered.

*****

It was fair to say that the next few days Cassy got plenty of alone time. Almost everyone had gone home for the holidays, and she was pretty much alone. She did get to catch up on her reading though, which was good, because Keira had given her hundreds of books to read, and she had no idea how she was going to read them all, as well as studying for her OWL's. She did manage to finish all her homework though, which was good, because she hadn't done any while she was on holiday.

On the last day of the holidays, she decided it would be good to go for a walk around the lake. It was a really nice day, cold, but the sky was blue. She pulled on her jacket, which was blue, along with her yellow scarf. She enjoyed dressing brightly. Her scarf was especially fluffy, which made her very excited, as things like that tended to.

She was just passing Hagrid's hut, when she saw a boy in the distance walking towards her. She soon recognised him to be Zacharias Smith. She scowled, apparently he was back from his widely proclaimed brilliant, expensive holiday. Joy.

He was swaggering towards her, and she suddenly remembered Harry's warning a while back, when he had told her to watch out for him, as he was not happy about the way she had treated him that day in the Hog's Head. She told herself that that was _not_ why he was outside just now, he was probably just out for a walk, like her. She told herself this over and over again, but she couldn't help the feeling of terror that was creeping up on her.

He was walking straight towards her, there was no doubt about it now, he was sneering in her direction.

"Smith," she greeted when he was close enough to hear her. "Good holiday?"

He gave one stiff nod, "Marshall."

"Well, I'll be seeing you at the DA...bye." she said, trying to get away quickly before he could do anything.

"Don't be dumb Marshall. _Expelliarmus!_" Cassy's wand flew out her hand, and she cursed silently, waiting for the consequences.

"You know, Marshall, I don't appreciate being made fun of, like you did to me in the Hog's Head. You made a fool of me back then, and I don't appreciate it."

"Yeah, well, you shouldn't have been _being_ a fool, should you?"

"You're the one without the wand, remember?"

"You're the one who would stoop low enough to attack a girl." It was a half-hearted attempt to dissuade him, she knew, but she had to try.

"Yeah, sure, because a guilt trip is so gonna work on me," he sneered.

"Well get on with it, then! If you're gonna hex me, then do it!" she said, thankful her voice wasn't trembling.

"I will!"

"Yeah, right. Been holding a grudge a long time, haven't we? And even now, you could have done it this whole time, and you haven't. What does that say about you?" She knew this wasn't helping, but even now she couldn't help but to mock him. "Are you a coward, Smith?"

"I am _not_ a coward! And I'll prove it to you!" he paused, as if for dramatic effect, "_Sectum Sempra!"_

Cassy gasped, she had never heard that spell before in her life. A huge gash appeared on her stomach, and she stared down at the blood now pouring out. Black spots appeared in her vision, but she managed to see Smith staring open-mouthed in horror at what he had done. And then like the coward he was, he ran for his life. Cassy was gasping for breath, and the pain was unbearable. She begged for relief, and it was given to her, as everything went black.

Sorry it's so short...there is a reason for this though!! I wanted to try and do a cliffhanger type thingy...kinda failed, but heey!

Review please? :)


	8. Chapter 8

I don't own Harry Potter...sigh.

Cassy could see black shapes moving around her, voices coming in and out of her ears. Deep voices, ones so high that they seemed unreal. One shape came closer to her, and said something in her ear. It was loud, unnaturally loud, it made her head hurt. It boomed through her brain, the words unrecognisable. And then everything was black again.

*****

"It looked really, really sore..." said Hermione.

"She'll be all right...Madame Pomfrey said so." that was Harry.

"As long as she rested. She's not going to like that, she will want to be up and doing things."

"Well, she'll have to rest, then won't she? Stop _worrying _Hermione. She'll be fine. What _I_ want to know, is who did it." said Ron.

"I'll bet I know who it was," said Harry darkly.

"If you're going to say Draco Malfoy, Harry, then - " said Hermione.

"I wasn't going to say Malfoy." Harry interrupted, "I think it was Smith."

"Smith? _Zacharias _Smith?" said Ron, sounding incredulous.

"How many Smith's do we know, Ron? All I know is, he had it in for her."

"Look, she's moving, maybe she's waking up." Hermione's voice came closer to Cassy, "Can you hear me, Cassy?"

"Yup." she said, opening her eyes. Ron laughed.

"Told you she'd be fine."

"Yep, right as rain...never better, that's me."

Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"_Sarcasm,_ Hermione."

"What happened, Cassy?" asked Harry.

"Smith attacked me...I was on a walk, and he used some spell I've never heard of before."

"I knew it," he said triumphantly.

"Yes, yes, well done Harry." said Hermione, rolling her eyes, "But Cassy, you're going to need to tell someone about this, they'll ask you."

"I dunno, Hermione, what if Smith, you know, gets even angrier?" said Ron.

She rolled her eyes, "He won't be able to _do_ anything Ron, the teachers will have him under - "

"Ah, Cassy you're awake, good, good." Madame Pomfrey interrupted Hermione, bustling in. "How does your stomach feel?"

Cassy thought about it for a moment, "It feels numb." she told her.

"Good, that means the numbing potion is working." _Naaaw..._ "I can't heal this quickly, as it is a cursed injury, but I can use salves and potions so you won't be able to feel anything. And you _need_ to rest, because if you don't then the whole process will just take longer." said Madame Pomfrey, "Understand?"

"I don't want to just sit here and - "

"Well, you have to. There's no way around it."

"But, can I still like, go to classes and stuff?"

"No."

"But - "

"When I said _rest_ I meant _staying in here and resting._ Not gallivanting around the castle late at night with your friends."

"So, I can gallivant during the day then?"

"Don't be cheeky. And, no, you can't. You have to stay here."

"But there's nothing to _do._" she moaned, knowing she sounded like a five year old, but not really caring.

"Well, that's just the nature of the situation."

"But -"

"Miss Marshall, there is no way around it." said Pomfrey, a tone of finality in her voice, "Now, drink this."

She obediently gulped down the disgusting liquid, grimacing as it slithered down her throat, seemingly burning her as it went down. Madam Pomfrey poked her stomach slightly. Hermione winced, as if feeling her pain.

"Did you feel anything at all there, Cassy?" asked the older woman.

"Nope."

"Nothing?"

"No."

"Good. That means it's working." _Naw..._thought Cassy again, _Way to state the obvious. _

Pomfrey left the four around the bed, but turned around when she was half way to her office.

"Oh, and I expect a teacher will want to speak to you about this. In fact, Mr Weasley, can you inform Professor McGonagall that Cassy is awake?"

Ron nodded and walked out.

"How long have I been out?" asked Cassy.

"Since this morning I think..." said Harry.

"Really?"

"Yeah." he said, "It's a shame you have to stay in here for so long though. It's really boring in here."

"I know...I had the flu once and had to stay here for two days...that was bad enough."

They both looked sympathetic, and Cassy didn't like it. She hated it when people felt sorry for her when she was sick or something. The tone of voice just made her want to hit them. She would prefer it if they said something like "_Guteeed", _and just asked if she was okay. Not all this stupid sympathy. It annoyed her. Just then a boy was ushered in by his friend. His nose was bleeding dramatically, and they ran off to Pomfrey's office.

"I've never had a nosebleed..." Cassy said brightly, more to herself than anyone else.

"Um...cool?" said Harry, looking confused.

"Wait, did I say that out loud?" she asked. "Woops...sorry guys. I should really keep thethe things in my head. Wait, thethe things? Thethe things. Okay, I can't talk. _These _things. Ha! I did it! I have beat you...talking ninga's!"

She realised that Harry and Hermione were staring at her as if she had suddenly grown another head. Apparently being with Keira for the holiday's had worn off on her...

"Sorry." she muttered, going slightly red.

***

It was insanely boring in the Hospital Wing. The most exciting thing was seeing people come in and out with various injuries. It was actually strangely fun, Cassy thought, imagining stories about how they had managed to acquire them. One boy had come in with his hair almost totally burnt off, and some of it was still black and smoking. A potions accident most likely. Neville had also managed to end up in the bed right next to her, after managing to fall down the stairs. Well, he might have been pushed.

That was a question actually.

Did he fall, or was he pushed?

Cassy pushed that thought out of her head. It was something her dad said every time somebody mentioned the word fall. Or pushed, he really wasn't all that picky. She suddenly realised how random her thoughts were going. Maybe she was going insane? She wouldn't be surprised, she had been stuck in the Hospital Wing for so long...Well, a week. But that _is_ a long time when you have absolutely nothing to do.

As Cassy sat there, the doors to the hospital wing opened, and Harry, Ron and Hermione walked in.

"How are you feeling?" asked Hermione.

"Fine." said Cassy shortly, as Ron sniggered and Harry sighed.

"How's the boringness?" asked Ron, looking as if he was trying to work out if "boringness" was a word.

"Boring." she said.

"I've always wondered," said Ron, "how do you get food in here?"

"Um, you pick it up, put it in your mouth and swallow. It's kinda like in the Great Hall, except here, you're in a bed."

"Ha, ha. Very funny."

"On the other hand, I found it hilarious."

"It _so_ wasn't"

"You realise _just _how girly you sounded there Ron?"

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Didn't"

"Did."

"Didn't"

"Did."

"Didn't"

"Did"

"Didn't"

"Didn't"

"Did."

"HA! Got you."

"But you said it too!"

"That's hardly the point."

"I think it is."

"Is not."

"Is."

"Not."

"Is."

"Not."

"Is."

"No-"

"GUYS!" yelled Harry over the top of the other two, "Shut _up_! You two are as bad as Ron and Hermione."

"Excuse me?" said Hermione.

"You have to admit, you two do argue a lot."

"We do not!"

"Yes-"

"Well, well, well, look who's arguing now?" said Ron, smirking.

Cassy laughed, "Well isn't this one cheery, uplifting hospital visit?"

"Sorry Cassy..." chorused the other three quickly. Cassy laughed.

"I was joking guys."

"So, anyway, how is your stomach feeling, Cassy?" asked Hermione to fill the silence threatening to fill the room.

"It's fine. Seriously." Cassy lied. The potion wasn't really working at the moment, but she would be okay.

"You sure?" asked Harry.

"Yup."

***

Keira walked through the forest behind her house, trying not to be angry. But sometimes it just got to her. _Why_ was she a squib? _Why_ was she not the one having an awesome time at Hogwarts? _Why_ did she have to grow up as a wizard, only to have it all torn away from her? It had been hard at first, learning that she was a squib. They had guessed – that was why she went to primary school in the first place. But she had always hoped that maybe she would get her Hogwarts letter...but it never came.

It had been even worse finding out that Cassy, her friend, was a witch. She had ignored the blatant fact that was clearly staring her in the face, when she had told her she was leaving in Primary six. It was obvious she was going to an English school, but in Scotland? All of the facts added up to one thing - Hogwarts.

She had got used to it, though, in the past five years. But having Cassy come out and tell her, that just made it all so much worse. Of course, she had been happy that the other girl had finally told her, but all the old misery and questions had come bubbling back up.

Somewhere, far off, she heard a howl – it sounded like a werewolf. Glancing up at what little sky there was discernible through the tree branches, she realised that she should really be getting home soon. She was just turning round, when she heard a scuffle behind her.

Whipping back round, she saw an animal in front of her. She gasped out loud, knowing exactly what this was. Her dad had taught her all about magical creatures – just in case.

Standing in front of her was a werewolf.

_Don't move, _said a voice in her head. She stared the creature in the eye, and then it grinned evily. Wait, the werewolf _grinned​​? _From what she had been taught, they didn't actually enjoy what they did, unless they were the seriously freakish ones like Fenrir Greyback, or -

_Oh. My. Goodness._

_Stay calm, Keira, stay calm,_ said the voice.

_How do you expect me to stay calm? Do you know who that _is? She screamed back at the voice. She had seen pictures of him, in the textbooks her dad had shown her. There was no doubt about it. This was definitely him.

_Fiddlesticks, _she thought one of the most offensive words she ever used – she wasn't one for swearing.

And she ran, she was fast, but no match for a Greyback – a fully grown werewolf, intent on hunting his prey – maybe even killing. Instead of running, she decided it would be better to go out with a bang.

She turned round suddenly, and punched him in the face. The force of the punch was mingled with the force of how fast he was running, sending him flying back. But not for long. Next thing she knew he was upon her, but she hit him, scratched him, slapped him, kicked him with all her might, and then, as a last resort, knowing she no longer, if she ever had, stood a chance, she screamed. Summoning all the air she could into her lungs, and then pushing it out in one long, loud blast.

Then Greyback bit her, and she knew no more.

Hope you liked! Please review :)


	9. Chapter 9

She was in a white bed, in a white room. There was a bunch of flowers on her bedside table, and a couple of cards, one, she noticed with a smile, was from Jacob. Why was she in here? This wasn't a normal hospital, that her friends would have taken her to if she had been hurt, there were no bags of what looked like water (to tell the truth, she had no idea what they were actually for), no heart monitors.

She soon realised that she was not alone in the room. There was a man, balding, but still with a little red hair, lying in the bed next to her. There was a woman in the bed beside the door, who seemed to be reading a book, but her eyes were glazed over, she must have been reading something. And then, there was another man, he was also sleeping. And they were all sharing a room together.

It came to her quite quickly after that. She was in _St. Mungos._ She had been bitten by a _werewolf_. But that meant that...she was a werewolf.

No.

No _way._ This was a dream, it had to be. Any minute now, she would wake up, and will all have been a dream, and she'll laugh about the craziness of it with Jacob, and her family. There was no chance she was actually a werewolf.

No way.

She waited for herself to wake up.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Soon, she knew that she wasn't going to wake up. The realisation hit her like a slap on her face, and she started to cry quietly, tears pouring down her face.

The door opened, but she didn't want anyone to know she had been crying, so she quickly wiped her eyes. She couldn't really stop crying, so she picked up a card – it was the first thing she could see – and pretended to be reading.

"He's asleep, aw, bless him." said a womans voice, she sounded nice, like someone who Keira would like to hug. That's what she really wanted right now – a hug.

"I'm gonna get us some drinks. You want a coffee?" that was a mans voice.

"Yeah, please," the woman lowered her voice, "You have money?"

There was no answer, but Keira figured that the man nodded, because he walked out the room quickly.

She hoped that the woman hadn't seen her, looking at the card, it was a really awkward position, she knew she couldn't sit the whole time with it. Quietly, hoping the woman wasn't looking, she put it down, and pretended to be sleeping.

She "slept", hoping the woman would leave soon. The man came back, and apparently handed the woman her coffee.

"Thanks, pet." she said quietly. Keira heard someone yawn, and figured that the man had woken up.

"Oh, hello Molly, Bill," he said.

"Hello, honey, how are you feeling?"

"Good, good." he said cheerfully.

"When did she come in?" asked Bill, his voice lowered to a whisper.

"Just this morning. They brought her in when I was still awake, poor soul. Another bitten by a werewolf. I heard some of the Healers gossiping about it being Fenrir Greyback."

"Poor child." said the woman, Molly, "such a shame. Maybe we should get Lupin to come and talk to her?"

"That sounds like a good idea."

Keira heard the door opening again.

"Hello, Healer Mokey." that was the man.

"Hello there. Has the girl woken yet?"

"I don't _think _so."

Footsteps came closer, and she opened her eyes, she didn't want Mokey to find her pretending to sleep.

"Hello, Keira. How are you feeling?"

"Fine," she said, hating the fact that her voice cracked when she said this.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Only a couple of minutes," she lied – not wanting the other family to know that she had heard everything they had said.

"Now, do you remember what happened."

She nodded.

"I was attacked, and...and bitten...by a...by a..." she trailed off, unable to say the word _werewolf_.

"By a werewolf." the Healer finished for her.

She nodded again, her eyes stinging, she was desperately trying not to cry.

"Can I just ask, why were you not at Hogwarts?"

"'Cause I'm a squib. I know someone who goes though."

"Okay, pet. If you need anything, just give me a wee shout. I'm here to talk to as well. Is there anyone you want to contact?"

"Can I have some paper? And a quill? To write to someone?"

"Sure, honey."

Keira looked down at the paper, aware of the other families eyes on her, and began to write.

***

_Dear Cassy,_

_How are you? Is school good? I hope you're not getting too stressed, with your OWL's coming up soon._

_Look, I have something to tell you...I don't even know if you'll believe me or not. I just remember that time in P5, when I fainted in the Medical Room, and you got all annoyed that I never told you...so I figured you'd want to know about this. _

_Yeah, so I got bitten by a werewolf. Which kinda sucks, but I suppose it's a step up from squib, right? Sorry, that was a bit bitter. I'm not in the best of moods right now. I'm in St. Mungo's. _

_So, um, yeah, I'm a werewolf now. _

_You don't need to write back, I mean, you might want to disassociate yourself from me, after all you are a witch, right? And magical people don't like us half breeds, I suppose that's what I am now, isn't it?_

_Well, anyway, I'll see you I suppose._

_From_

_Keira_

Cassy reread the letter a few times, just to see if she had read right, and Keira was actually telling her that she was a werewolf, and that she wasn't telling her about some new book she had read, involving werewolves or something.

It had to be a joke, she decided. Someone had sent her a pretend letter, to see what she would do.

But...it couldn't be. The only other person at Hogwarts that even knew about Keira, was Hermione, and she would never do something like that.

Maybe she was dreaming then. She pinched herself, hard.

"_Ow!" _Okay, so she wasn't dreaming. That only left her one option.

This was all real – which meant that Keira was a werewolf. Cassy _had _to see her. Her friend was injured – not only physically. If it were her in Keira's place, then she would want Keira to come and help her through it – so she was going to help Keira through it.

She got out her bed, carefully, but quickly. Quietly, she got changed, wincing as the robes pulled over her wound. She tucked her wand in her pocket – and she was ready.

"Cassy Marshall, what are you doing out of your bed?" _Shoot_, thought Cassy, she was caught.

"Um, well, I got a letter from my friend -"

"In what way is that an explanation?"

"I'm not _finished_." she snapped at the Healer. Madam Pomfrey raised her eyebrows slightly, but said nothing.

"Well, yeah, I got a letter from my friend, and she's been hurt, badly, and I need to see her."

"Miss Marshall, you are hurt, and I don't see her rushing up to see you!"

Cassy sighed in exasperation, "That's because I didn't _tell _her!" _Duh._

"I don't see why this is so important! She can write to you, so she is obviously okay!"

"If you think that the definition of being _bitten by a werewolf _is okay, then you have serious issues!" she shouted at her in her anger.

Madam Pomfrey gasped, "A werewolf?"

"No, I was joking." she said sarcastically.

"There was no need for that, Miss Marshall."

"Actually I think there was! My friend is stuck in St. Mungo's, probably crying her eyes out, and you just expect me to lie here!" she shouted, not realising how loud her voice was going.

"Yes, I do!"

"Well...you shouldn't!" Cassy shouted, unable to think of anything more witty to say.

"Just get back into bed!"

"_No! _Just get it into your head, that I _will _see my friend, whether you like it or not!"

"What's going on?" said Dumbledore, walking in. Why was he here? Cassy turned around, feeling extremely angry.

"I need to see my friend, she's in St. Mungos, she's been bitten by a werewolf, I need to be there for her, but _she_," she jabbed her thumb in the direction of Madam Pomfrey, "won't let me go!"

"Well, I'm sure that you do have to be there for your friend, I'm sure we can arrange for you to go."

"But, Headmaster, I must object. Miss Marshall is in no state to go gallivanting across the country on her own! She has been injured!"

"Agreed, I will have someone go with her. Now, Miss Marshall, when do you want to go?"

"Right now."

Dumbledore laughed, "I will get somebody to come along...how about the Weasley twins, I'm sure they would like to see their father."

Cassy smiled, that would be helpful. "And, sir, I was wondering – would it be possible to contact Professor Lupin? He might be able to...help?"

"I'm sure that could be arranged. Now, you get yourself ready, Madam Pomfrey, I trust that you will give her the suitable potions? I will go get the twins, and your transport."

"Thank you, Professor." said Cassy.

"Drink this." said Madam Pomfrey, giving her a pile of bottles to drink.

"All this?"

"Yes. This is a very dangerous trip for you to take, and I want you to be prepared."

Cassy rolled her eyes, but did as she was told.

***

She looked around the place warily – she'd never been in St. Mungos before. It was full of strange looking illnesses and injuries. The three men with her didn't stop to stare though, Lupin walked straight up to the desk, while Fred and George helped Cassy to walk. Lupin talked quickly to the bored looking lady at the desk, and then led them off down a corridor. She didn't pay attention to where she was going, she concentrated on getting there, leaning heavily on the twins.

"Here we are." said Lupin, and opened a door. Cassy saw that the room was not filled up particularly, there were about four people in it.  
"Dad!" said the twins, talking to the man in the bed by the window, he looked so much like him, he was obviously their father.  
"Fred, George, what are you doing here?"  
Fred motioned to Cassy, but she didn't pay attention to that, she was looking at the girl in the bed next to Mr Weasley.  
"Keira?"  
The girl smiled slightly. "Cassy, I didn't expect you to come rushing down here, I just thought you'd like to know."  
Cassy laughed, "And you thought that I would want to sit in Hogwarts wondering what was going on? Honestly, Keira, is that all you think of me?"  
The other girl laughed, "I guess not."  
"So, how are you?"  
"Fit as a fiddle."  
"Really?" she walked towards her, the twins still supporting her subtly.  
"Well, I've been better."

Cassy sat down next to her bed, and gave her a smile, "Talk to me,"  
"About what?"  
"Tell me what you really want to tell me. Tell me how you're feeling."  
Keira paused, "Well, it's just rubbish." She blurted out, all too ready to rant at someone, whether it was Cassy or not. Cassy had a feeling that she's been waiting to scream at someone all morning."I mean, werewolves are second class citizens in the wizarding world, it just feels like I always get the hardest path, you know what I mean? First, I become a squib," She was waving her hands around like a lunatic, Cassy feared for her own safety, but was too polite to try and point it out to Keira, she was already in enough emotional pain."And now I'm a werewolf! And I don't want to go through the painful transformations, the hurting people because I'm not in my right mind. I just wish I could live a normal life. It's just...it's just not fair." She was crying, and Cassy reached over and hugged her, ignoring the physical pain she had. Because her friend was upset, and it was true, Keira always seemed to get the worst of it.

"Keira, this is Professor Lupin, he was my DADA teacher in my third year. Keira, he's a werewolf. I thought you might like to talk to him, because you know, as much as I want to help you, I can't relate to you like he can."  
Keira nodded, unable to speak through her tears.  
"Hello Keira." said Lupin, smiling kindly at her, "You know, I was bitten when I was very young."  
"Yeah! But you weren't a squib before hand!" Cassy half screamed, extremely dramatically.  
Lupin nodded, but kept on talking anyway. "I've had to live with this all my life. I'm not going to tell you that this life is easy, because that would be a complete an utter lie. But you can still live, Keira. You realise who your real friends are. They're the ones that judge you for who you are, and not for the fact that you change into a wolf once a month." Lupin paused, "You know, there's actually a potion that stops you from hurting others. So that's one problem solved. And I know it's not fair, but to be honest, life isn't fair."

Keira nodded, "Thank you. For talking to me, sorry I was a bit rude. I'm just having a bit of a mid-life crisis."  
"It's all right. And if it ever gets too much, I'm just the other end of an owl."  
"Thank you." she said again. She looked as if she was trying to be brave, but she failed and she burst into a fresh wave of tears.  
"What am I going to do about Jacob?" She wailed.  
"Aw, Keira, it'll be okay. Look, eventually there may be a time when you will tell him, but right now, you don't have to do anything," said Cassy, "And, as Lupin says, he won't judge you on the fact you're a werewolf. That boy is great with you, and if I know him, even if it is just a little bit, I know that he will not abandon you because of this. So don't worry about him."  
"Thanks Cassy," said Keira, smiling a little.  
"Hey, what else am I here for?"

"So you're Cassy!" said Mr Weasley, causing everyone to turn and stare at him. "Sorry, it's just that Ron mentioned you in one of his letters."  
Cassy smiled, "Yeah, that's me."  
"He said something about it being really weird, he hadn't noticed you up until now."  
"Yeah, that sounds like him." she said with a smile.  
"I'm his father by the way."  
"I guessed when Fred and George came in and called you Dad." she laughed.  
"Hmm, yes, that would be a little bit of a giveaway."  
"Yeah...well, anyway, Keira, if you need to talk, just send me a letter."  
"Are you leaving already?" she said, making Cassy feel guilty. Keira looked as though Cassy was abonding her on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere.

Cassy glanced at the twins.  
"Sorry, but I think Madam Pomfrey would kill us all if we had you away from her care any longer." said George with a grin.  
She sighed and muttered something about stupid healers, which made the twins laugh.  
"Wait, what?" said Keira, "Isn't Madam Pomfrey the healer at Hogwarts? Why would she be annoyed with you?"  
"Um, long story," said Cassy quickly, "I got hurt at school, and I had to fight with Madam Pomfrey to come here. Don't worry though, I'm fine. Nothing serious."  
Fred snorted, "Nothing serious? Come on, Cassy, everyone was frantic."  
"Helpful Fred, very helpful."  
"What? Cassy, what aren't you telling me."  
"It was life threatening," supplied George, "But she's fine now, look. She's up and everything."  
"She's not fine yet." said Mr Weasley cheerfully, and everyone stared, "Ron said she was still recovering. In his letter."  
"Thank you people." said Cassy, annoyed now.  
"Cassy, why didn't you tell me?" asked Keira.  
"I didn't want to worry you. And look, I'm fine!"  
"No you're not."  
"Shu'up. Okay, so we're equal now. You didn't tell me you fainted in primary, and I didn't tell you I got hurt at Hogwarts." said Cassy.  
"I think that a near death experience is a little bit more dramatic than fainting."  
"Oh be quiet."

"Seriously, Cassy, you need to get back to the castle. I know what it's like to be late for Madam Pomfrey, and it's not pleasant. I think the fact you had a shouting session with her before you left might make things a little worse." said Lupin, looking amused.  
Cassy made a face, but gave Keira a hug, "Write to me," she told her, "I've been bored stiff in the Hospital Wing,"  
"I still don't know what happened to you," said Keira.  
"Ask Mr Weasley," she said laughing, "he seems to know all about it!"  
He laughed.  
"Get well soon, Mr Weasley," said Cassy.  
"You too, Cassy," he said.  
"And Keira, don't worry about it. And if you do, talk to Mr Weasley, I'm sure he'd be happy to, or write to me or Professor Lupin."  
"Okay. I'll see you later,"  
"Yeah, see you. Bye!"


	10. Chapter 10

_New bit! First, I totally forgot to say in the last chapter, but I really wanna say a big thank you to "Tiny Little Robot" because she really helped me to write the last chapter :) Thank yoou!_

_I don't own anything from Harry Potter, and I am making no money at all from it this._

Cassy got back to Hogwarts absolutely exhausted. She was practically falling asleep on her feet. Who knew a trip to St, Mungo's could be so tiring? She stumbled into the hospital wing, the twins the only reason she was still vertical, and they brought her to her bed, which she fell on.

"I'll go tell Madam Pomfrey we're back," George muttered, and ran off to the office. He came back with the Healer in front, who was muttering about the stupidity of going out on such a trip when she was in this state.

"How are you feeling Cassy?" asked Pomfrey.

"Tired," she muttered.

"How is your stomach?"

"Fine."

"Okay. You need to take this before you go to sleep,"

Cassy nodded, sitting up, and waiting to be handed the potions. She gulped them down quickly, and fell back onto the bed, ready for a long sleep. She didn't hear the twins muttered conversation as they left her, as she was already out.

***

Harry, Ron and Hermione were visiting Cassy in the Hospital Wing – she was getting very irritated with the place, and was glad that she would be allowed out in a couple of days.

"Did Dumbledore ever come to talk to you about what happened?" asked Hermione suddenly.

"Yeah," said Cassy, "But nothing seems to have happened after that. Looks like the idiot got away with it."

"McGonagall did take 30 points from Hufflepuff last week for no reason," said Harry, "I guess she knows and isn't all that happy about it."

"Well that's always good isn't it." said Cassy, a little sarcastically.

"So, what's been happening?" she asked, realising that she was very slow with all the "news" of the school.

"I have to take private lessons with Snape." said Harry,

"Ew."

They all laughed a bit.

"When do you get out of here?" asked Ron,

"The day after tomorrow," said Cassy, "I wish it was now. It smells funny in here."

Ron raised his eyebrows slightly.

"What? It does!" she said, "It smells _way_ to clean. I don't like it clean."

"Oh no she doesn't," said Hermione, "You should see her bit of our dorm. It looks like a bombs hit it."

Ron looked confused – the only bomb he'd ever come across had been a dung-bomb.

"Muggle thing Ron," said Cassy quickly, before he could ask. "And my bit of the room is perfectly fine thank you very much! It is _homely_ and _cosy_. It's not as if there's anything festering up there...I don't think."

Hermione laughed, "Knowing you there probably is."

Cassy childishly stuck her tongue out at the other girl.

***

"Last time we say Amy, she was headed for the shore...fighting off the volatile grey skies. She said now begins forever and that no one knows their time...We bid farewell not knowing, that might be our last goodbye...Amy was a fighter...she cut like Cassius Clay..."

Cassy jumped and stopped singing when she realised there was someone standing right behind her.

"I have not heard that song before, Cassy." said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling.

"It's by an American band...muggles I think."

"You think?"

"I can never be sure."

Dumbledore laughed, "You have not come to see me in a while."

Cassy looked at the floor, "I finally made friends."

"Yes," she looked up, and he was smiling, "You should still come and visit me occasionally though. Just remember, you can always talk to me."

Cassy nodded, "I'm just finding it easier to talk to a girl...um, my age," she said, "don't get me wrong, I like talking to you, you tell me so many amazing stories, but it's nice to be able to relate to someone..."

"Hermione Granger I believe?"

"Yeah,"

"Well, it is fantastic that you have some friends here, now, my girl. Just don't forget your studies," he said, smiling.

"I won't."

"Now, I see we are leaving the hospital wing?"

"Yeah," said Cassy, grinning.

"Have you been keeping up with your homework?"

"What else was there to do in here?"

Dumbledore laughed, "Then you shouldn't be too far behind. Now I must warn you to take care of yourself this term."

"I always do!"  
"I think the fact that you are in here is evidence against that comment,"

"That was _so _not my fault!"

"Yes, well. I have matters to attend to. What was the name of that song, so I may look it up when I am away from Hogwarts? I rather liked it."

"Um, Amy's song."

"Ah. Well, goodbye, Miss Marshall."

"Bye."

When Cassy first came to Hogwarts, she had had no friends, so Dumbledore had told her that he was always there to talk to, and it had become a bit of a habit, she would often go and have the odd conversation about various things. He also told her some pretty cool stories – that was how she had known about Sirius Black, and what had happened that fateful night that Harry's parents had been killed.

***

The day that Cassy left the Hospital Wing, was the day of a DA meeting. She was ecstatic, she had really missed the meetings when she was stuck in a hospital bed. She skipped up to the room of requirement – delighted of the freedom to be able to do so. She was still humming Amy's song – it was officially stuck in her head.

She opened the door to the room, grinning.

"Cassy!" said Fred and George at the same time.

"Hey guys," she said, still grinning slightly manically.

"You're out!"

"Yeah I am!"

"When did you get out?"

"Just this afternoon."

"Awesome..."

"What have I missed?" asked Cassy, looking over at Harry.

"We were just practising various defensive spells." he said, "You chose a good day to come back though – we're starting patronuses."

"Really? That's so cool!"

Harry nodded, and went to talk to Hermione about something, just as Luna skipped over.

"Hello Cassy, are you feeling better?" she asked.

"Yeah, thanks Luna,"

"I meant to visit you at the hospital wing," said Luna, "but I got preoccupied. Anyway, I got you this," she fumbled in her pockets, and pulled out a stuffed animal, and shoved it into Cassy's hands.

"Aw, thank you Luna. You really didn't have to," Cassy examined the animal, noticing that on it's right side the legs were shorter than on its left side. Ah, so that's what it was.

"It's a haggis!" she said brightly, "Because, you know, you're Scottish! And they run about in the Highlands of Scotland all the time!"

"Yeah, that's why they've got two legs shorter, because they run around on hills," said Cassy teasingly, "they're pretty easy to catch actually. Just sit in front of them and give them a fright – they'll turn round, lose balance and roll down the hill. Although, they are quite vicious – we have to put mud on our faces to camouflage ourselves."

"Do you go and catch them a lot then?"

Cassy looked at the other girls face, trying to work out if she was joking – she wasn't, her face was deadly serious.

"Aw, Luna, I was joking. Haggises aren't real animals, we just tell kids that as a joke..."

"No, no, they are real, dad's been out to catch them before,"

"Uh-huh...whatever you say...Oh look! Harry's starting,"

Cassy paid attention to Harry, trying not to laugh. Honestly, as much as she loved Luna, that girl was crazy sometimes.

"Hey guys." said Harry, smiling, "Well, today is the day you've all been waiting for! We're going to be doing patronuses."

There was an audible cheer throughout the room.

"Okay, first things first, the spell you all need to know." he said, "So, repeat after me: Expecto Patronum."

"Expecto Patronum," everyone chorused.

"Good. Okay, everyone, when you cast this spell, you need to think of a happy memory – the happiest you can think of. This will not work if you are not thinking of something happy, okay?"

There were various nods, and noises of assent to this.

"And when this happens in real life, it will be a lot harder. When I learnt this I had a bogart, so it was a bit harder. So even if you can do it now, that does not guarantee that you will be able to do it when faced by a dementor. Now, let me just show you what it might look like."

Harry turned to the side, seemed to think for a second – obviously thinking of a happy memory – and then yelled, "Expecto Patronum!"

A shining, silver stag blossomed out of Harry's wand, cantered a few times around the room, then disappeared.

"On your first few tries it may not be a fully formed patronus, it may just be some silver mist, but don't give up hope. Okay, so try it yourself now!"

_Okay, _Cassy thought, _happy memory..._

She searched her mind for happy memories, trying to find the happiest. When she had made friends? No, that had seemed more gradual to her than one memory. Getting her Hogwarts letter? No, that had been confusion, wondering if it was a joke. Coming to Hogwarts? No, that had been full of nerves, fear of what she had to face.

What about just being with people from her old life? The one before she knew she was a wizard. Suddenly, she remembered being back in the holidays, with Keira and people from an old youth group she had gone too. They had been laughing – just laughing. Laughing long and hard until it hurt. This, surely, was a happy memory.

Summoning up all the energy she could, filling herself up with that one memory, she pulled out her wand, and said: "Expecto patronum!"

A shape burst forth out of her wand. What was it? Before Cassy could tell what it was, it had gone.

"Well done Cassy!" said Harry.

Everyone was doing really well, they all seemed to have managed it. The door opened slightly, and a small house elf ran in. It ran straight to Harry. The elf looked peculiar – it was wearing clothes, and about eight misshapen woolly hats.

"Hi Dobby!" Harry said, "What are you – What's wrong?"

Everyone was silent, staring at the small elf, wondering what on earth was going on. Dobby did indeed look terrified, his little body shaking, and his eyes wide.

"Harry Potter, sir...Harry Potter, sir...Dobby has come to warn you...but the house-elves have been warned not to tell..."

Without warning, Dobby ran head first at the wall, bouncing off because of his many hats.

"What's happened Dobby?" asked Harry in panic.

"Harry Potter...she...she..."

Dobby punched himself in the nose.

"Who's "she" Dobby?"

The elf merely looked up at Harry.

"Umbridge?" asked Harry, horror etched across his face.

Dobby nodded, "What about her? Dobby – she hasn't found out about this – about us – about the DA?"

The answer was clear in Dobby's face – yes, yes she had.

"Is she coming?"

Dobby howled, beating the floor with his hands, "Yes, Harry Potter, yes!"

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" yelled Harry, "RUN!"

Everyone ran, trying to all get out the door at once, people sprinting away as fast as they could. Cassy was in the middle, she ran as soon as she was out, she straight to the common room, only _just_ getting there in time. She sat on the couch, she could feel herself shaking, her breaths coming out in gasps. She suddenly realised that the people in the common room were staring at her.

"Nothing to see here," she said quickly, "just, um, got chased by Peeves. I suspect that a few more people may have been caught by him. He's on the rampage tonight! You better watch out..."

Glad that people were looking convinced, she saw the portrait door opening again, and Ron and Hermione running in, out of breath. They saw her and rushed over.

"You okay?" she asked when they got over.

"Yeah, we're good," said Ron for both of them.

"I told them that Peeves was chasing people..."

"Good, that's probably a realistic explanation" said Hermione.

"Where's Harry?"asked Cassy suddenly.

"I don't know...I think he might have been caught." Ron said, glancing at the door, obviously hoping he would amble in any second now.

"That is not good."

"No..."

"How did she find out?"

"Someone must have sneaked." said Hermione.

"Ugh."

"Well, anyway, if they have, we'll know by tomorrow who it is."

"How?"

"Well, I might have put a hex on the bit of paper we all signed..."

***

They stayed up late waiting for Harry to come back. Eventually, the only people left in the common room were people from the DA, waiting to find out what had happened. Ron and Hermione sat a little bit apart from everyone, talking quietly occasionally, but generally just sitting in silence. Cassy sat with Ginny, Fred and George, the twins making the odd attempt at a joke, and the girls trying to laugh.

After what seemed like centuries, though it was only hours, the portrait door opened. Harry walked in, looking weary and sad. He was immediately bombarded with questions.

"What happened?"

"Who was it?"

"Where you caught?"

"Can we still carry on with the DA?"

Harry raised his hands, "Guys, one at a time, please."

"What happened, Harry?" said Neville, looking nervous.

"I got caught...they took me to Dumbledore's office. They were going to take Dumbledore to Azkaban, but he escaped."

Everyone looked dumbstruck.

"No...no Dumbledore?" said Cassy, "What are we going to do? It's practically suicide! Voldemort will have us any day now!"

Harry nodded solemnly, "I know."

"Who sneaked, Harry?" asked someone.

"Marietta. Cho's friend."

***

There was a new educational decree posted the very next day. Professor Umbridge had become head teacher, replacing Dumbledore. Cassy didn't think her life could get any worse...no DA, Umbridge lording it over them all _and_ they had OWL's soon. Oh, yeah, and stupid Voldemort was back, and he had been for a while now. The ministry were _still_ failing to notice the signs. Stupid ministry. She seemed to be noticing a lot of stupid stuff around these days.

Cassy was just sitting in the library, laughing to herself, remembering Fred and George's getaway the other week. It had been so funny, Umbridge had absolutely no idea what to do. She heard shuffling feet, and looking up, she saw Filch coming towards her. Thinking that it couldn't possibly be her she was coming to see, she looked back down at her charms essay, only to the hear the grunt that was Filch announcing himself. She looked up,

"Yes?" she asked, annoyed that the man was here.

"The headmistress would like to see you."

Cassy raised her eyebrows, but packed her stuff up quickly and followed Filch out of the room. He took her straight to the toad's office, and knocked three times on the door.

"Come in," said the sickly sweet voice of her head teacher, making her want to be sick.

Filch led her in, and then bowing, _she seriously has him wrapped around her finger doesn't she, _she thought ashe quickly left the room.

"Cassy, have a seat," said Umbridge, her face stretching into a wide smile. She warily sat down, watching the teacher as she did it.

"Tea?" she asked.

"Um, I don't really like te -" seeing Umbridge's murderous glare she quickly backtracked, "Uh, yeah, thanks."

"Sugar?"

"Please," she was gonna need all the sweeteners she could get to get rid of that horrid taste.

Umbridge took her time mixing up the tea, leaving Cassy to wonder what on earth was going on.

"Drink up, drink up," she said, smiling sweetly at her. She took a sip, trying not to grimace at the taste of it, the bitter tea, not covered up by the sugar in the slightest.

"Now, how is school going?" she asked, a look of fake interest plastered on her face.

"It's all right, I'm not really enjoying the studying all that much to be honest," said Cassy, W_ait, _she thought, _a simple "fine" would have done it...what made me say all that?_

"Yes, yes. And how have you been enjoying my classes?"

"They're really boring. I would rather swim with the giant squid than attend your class," _Oh. My. Goodness. Did I seriously just say that? What on earth is wrong with me? I am dead meat._

"Good, good." _that was...bizarre. Normally she would go mental at someone if they told her that. What is going on?_

"Now, Cassy I know for a fact that you are quite close to Albus Dumbledore. You used to talk to him about things, is this true?"

"Yeah, we used to talk about a lot of things."

"Good, good. Now tell me. Where has he gone?"

"I don't know." _Has she given me veritaserum? I wouldn't be surprised, it's not exactly against her morals...if she even has any. It's a very good thing that I _don't _know, otherwise I would be dead meat._

"Are you telling me the truth?"

"Yes, I am, I really don't know."

"Okay, dear, now tell me, where is Sirius Black?"

"I don't know that either," _Man, I am _so_ glad nobody told me._

"And you truly do not know this?"

"You know I don't know Professor." _Because you gave me veritaserum, which I'm pretty sure isn't all that legal!_

"I do, Cassy."

"Can I go now?"

"Yes, you may leave."

Cassy sprinted out, and up to the common room. She burst through the portrait, and ran straight over to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Woah, Cassy, what's going on?" asked Harry, looking surprised.

Cassy told them everything, not missing out a tiny detail – after all, she couldn't lie.

"That's awful!" said Hermione, "No offence Cassy, but I'm glad you didn't know."

"So am I!"

"You still can't lie, Cassy?" asked Ron, "About anything?" Cassy shook her head.

"Do you think this jumper is nice?"

"No, I think it's horrible, and totally clashes with your hair," she clamped her hand up to her mouth, so she would stop talking.

"And I wink what you smell funny, and weally, weally, need some new deodorant. Wis stuff smews a wittle wike mouwdy sandwiches." she said, muffled through her hand.

He looked shocked, "You really think that?"

She shook her head at the same time her mouth said, "Yes,"

He looked hurt.

"I'm going to go mope in my room, and normally I would have said that I was going to bed, but this veritaserum is not allowing me to lie, so truthfully I am going to go and write in my diary, read a book and moan to myself about how unfair life can be."

She quickly ran up to her room before she could say any more, leaving a shocked Ron, a sniggering Harry, and a Hermione who looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or not.

_Review please!!_


	11. Chapter 11

_Sorry it's been so long guys! I could give you a hundred million excuses, but you probably just wanna read the chapter :P Enjoy, and if its short, nobody kill me! Pleeease review :)_

Careers advice. Cassy's appointment was straight after Harry's on Monday – sadly only missing a little of Divination. She walked straight to the study door and knocked, coming in to see McGonagall and Umbridge both glaring daggers at each other. She guessed it was really all Umbridge's fault...but maybe she was a little biased.

"Miss Marshall," said McGonagall, looking away from the Head teacher to welcome Cassy to the room.

"Hello." she said, unable to think of a better thing to say.

"_Professor _Umbridge is just going to be sitting in on us today, if that is all right?"

It wasn't, but Cassy nodded anyway. "Sure."

"Good, good. Now, Cassy, do you have any thoughts on what you want to do after you leave Hogwarts?"

"Em..."

"Anything?"

"Not really...I guess I would like to do something worthwhile I suppose."

"Like being a Healer?"

"No, definitely not."

McGonagall laughed a little. "Fair enough. A job at the ministry perhaps?"

"Uh, I don't think office work is really my style...and I, um, amn't all that impressed with the ministry at the moment." said Cassy, highly aware of Umbridge's eyes glaring into her like lasers.

"Yes, well, Miss Marshall, I believe there is something you do want to do that you are not telling me? Spit it out girl, I don't have all day."

"I've always wanted to teach," she mumbled quietly.

"Pardon?"

"I want to teach."

McGonagall smiled, as if she had known this all along. "Yes, I thought so."

"Wha-?"

"I guessed. Well, you will need high grades in your favoured subject for that – you should also probably do something else once you have left school, get a job at Gringotts or something like that, and then once you are a little older, then we will see about that."

"Thank you professor." Cassy grinned.

"You're very welcome Miss Marshall. Now back to class"

As Cassy left, she could hear an argument going on within the depths of the room.

***

Cassy ran to the Great Hall as fast as her feet could carry her which, apparently, wasn't very fast. _I am _so_ unfit_, she thought as she ran. She got there, and it was exactly the same as the time Trelawney had been sacked, except this time Fred and George had replaced the teacher.

"Oh no." whispered Cassy.

"So – you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp?" asked Umbridge, grinning triumphantly over the first two people ever to talk to Cassy.

"Pretty amusing, yeah." said Fred, looking straight at her.

"I've got the form Headmistress." said Filch looking like he was about to burst with happiness. "I've got the form and I've got the whips waiting...Oh, let me do it now..."

"Very good Argus. You two," she gazed down at them with her beady eyes. ",are about to learn what happens to wrong-doers in my school." Her _school? This would never be _her_ school. It would always be Dumbledore's school, whether Dumbledore was here or not._

"You know what? I don't think we are." said Fred. "George, I think we've outgrown full-time education."

"Yeah, I've been feeling that myself," said his twin.

"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?"

"Definitely."

"_Accio brooms!"_ they both said together. They jumped on the broomsticks that came flying towards them.

"We won't be seeing you," said Fred to Umbridge.

"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch." said the other.

"If anyone fancies buying a portable swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to ninety-three Diagon Alley – Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes," he told the watching students, "Our new premises!"

"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat."

"STOP THEM!" screamed Umbridge, too late. The twins flew into the air, then, hovering, looked over at the poltergeist.

"Give her hell from us Peeves,"

Peeves saluted them – actually saluted them, as the boys flew away into the sunset. The crowd applauded but all Cassy could feel was sadness – sure, she was glad they were getting out of here, but Fred and George – the first people to show any interest in her – were going, going...gone.

Too late, she whispered "Don't go."

The first people to show any interest in her had left.

***

OWL's were coming up, and Cassy was terrified. She had never been good with exams, and this was no exception. Between classes, the amount of homework being given to them and studying, she had no time to just sit and chill. It was at breakfast the next day when the post came that she got a letter from Keira. It wasn't exactly unusual – they wrote to each other a lot now.

_Dear Cassy,_

_It was full moon last night...which was...different. Not the funnest of things to be honest. But I'm okay – I took the random potion which my parents' friend made for me, and I didn't hurt anyone. I explained everything to Jacob finally – and he took it all a lot better than I thought he would. He knows about you now, I hope you don't mind. It was an easier way of explaining it to him. Is that okay?_

_He didn't really seem _that _upset, so I took that as a good sign – it's not as if he took it as if it was an everyday thing or anything, I mean, who would? But he did say he would stick by me._

_We have exams right now and they are killing me! I officially hate Intermediates. They are so stupid, I mean, come on! Who needs to know about maths and all that stuff? And after this I still have another two years of exams...it's so mean._

_Anyway, you'll be doing your O.W.L's won't you? How is that going?  
Hope you're okay_

_Love _

_Keira_

Even though it was an ordinary, everyday thing to happen, it was still nice to hear from her friend.

***

It was transfiguration tomorrow – and Cassy spent the whole day studying, absolutely terrified. She stayed with Harry, Ron and Hermione, trying to learn everything, pleased to have Hermione with her when she got super-stuck.

"I'm never going to be able to learn all this!" she exclaimed suddenly, throwing her book down, "I think I'll just go and live as a muggle – I'll do...maths!" she said, ignoring the fact that she hadn't exactly been the best at maths, "Anythings got to be better than _this_!" she knew she was being a little irrational – but she was too stressed out to worry about that.

That evening was horrible – her whole dorm lay awake, she could hear Hermione muttering different laws of transfiguration under her breath – just making Cassy even more un-nerved.

_It's times like this, _she thought, _when I really need my i-pod._

The next morning at breakfast, she kept her study notes on her, reading them over and over, but not really taking anything in.

Once they were all seated in the hall, McGonagall told them that they may begin. Staring down at her paper – Cassy could feel that her hands were sweaty and shaking as she tried to concentrate.

_Cassy, _she told herself, _pull yourself together right now if you want to pass._

Reading the first question (_a) give the incantation and b) describe the wand movement required to make objects fly)_

She knew this! Thank goodness. Maybe it wouldn't be as hard as she thought it was going to be?

_Right. Wingardium Leviosa, _she thought barely able to stop herself muttering as she wrote, _swish and flick._

***

Her worst exam had to be Divination - which was hardly surprising. She hadn't really studied if she was honest, and she really didn't care about that exam. She stared into the ball, trying to see something, even if it was small.

"I see..." _Oh my goodness, what do I see? _"I see a tall man, he looks dark and foreboding..." she continued to "subtly" describe Voldemort, but for some reason at the end of that part the examiner looked slightly pleased. Maybe he believed Voldemort was back? Who knew?

She ended up telling the man that he would drop a pot plant on someones head next week during the tea leaves and told him that he was going to die the next day whilst reading his palm. All in all, she decided, not the most successful exam ever.

That night was Astronomy - in which they had to witness the _horrible _sacking of Hagrid – it haunted Cassy in her dreams that night.

***

It was strange, Cassy thought, how so many things seemed to be happening during the exams. She was just walking in to History of Magic with a foreboding feeling, wondering how badly she would do. Quickly telling herself that this was the _wrong_ attitude, she sat down at one of the desks, feeling nervous.

Thankfully nothing happened – that was until Harry fell off his chair yelling.

"Harry!" Hermione shrieked, at the same time as half the other girls did.

"Are you okay, my boy?" asked Professor Tofty, ushering Harry out the hall.

"Settle down, settle down!" said the other examiner, "Back to your examinations!"

After a while everyone settled down, members of the DA, glancing about at each other shakily every few seconds. What on earth had happened?

Cassy couldn't help thinking that last time Harry had had some kind of dream or something, Mr Weasley had been seriously hurt. She simply couldn't shake off the feeling that history could be repeating itself a bit.

***

When the exam finished, Ron and Hermione rushed off – obviously to find Harry, and Cassy went to find Ginny, who happened to have Luna with her, and quickly filled her in on what had happened.

They were walking down a corridor, when they heard Harry's voice.

"SO YOU THINK I'M GOING TO ACT LIKE I HAVEN'T SEEN -"

Hermione said something quietly to Harry. The three looked at each other, nodded, just as Harry started to yell again.

"Hi," said Ginny when they walked in, "We recognised Harry's voice. What are you yelling about?"

"Never you mind." said Harry harshly.

"There's no need to take that tone." said Cassy, as Ginny raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah, we were only wondering if we could help." said Ginny defensively.

"Well, you can't."

"You're being rather rude, you know." said Luna honestly.

Harry swore, and Cassy stopped herself from saying anything – she figured that now wasn't the time.

"Wait," said Hermione, "Wait...Harry, they _can_ help."

Everyone looked at her.

"Listen," she said, "Harry we need to establish whether Sirius really has left Headquarters."

"I've told you, I saw -"

"Harry, I'm begging you, please! Please, let's just check that Sirius isn't at home before we go charging off to London!" _She does have a point, _Cassy thought. "If we find out he's not there, then I swear I won't try to stop you. I'll come, I'll d-do whatever it takes to try and save him."

"Sirius is being tortured NOW!" Harry yelled, "We haven't got time to waste."

"Just listen to her Harry! How would you feel if this was all a stupid trick, and we got there and someone got hurt, _or worse?" _Cassy said, "I may have not known you for long, but I know you well enough to know how incredibly guilty you feel! So stop being an idiot and listen to Hermione, 'cause she knows what she's talking about!"

"How then?" he demanded, "How on _earth_ are we going to check?"

"We'll have to use Umbridge's fire and see if we can contact him. We'll draw Umbridge away again, but we'll need lookouts and that's where we can use Ginny and Luna." said Hermione.

"Yeah we'll do it." said Ginny.

"Okay," said Harry, clearly not happy with this way of things, but going with it anyway, "okay, if you can think of a way of doing this quickly, I'm with you now, otherwise I'm going to the Department of Mysteries right now."

"The Department of Mysteries?" said Luna, "But how are you going to get there?"

It was quickly decided that Ron and Cassy would go and tell her that Peeves was smashing up the Transfiguration department. The two ran off, finding Umbridge quickly.

"Professor!" she said urgently.

"Yes?" she said, looking up at them.

"It's Peeves," said Ron, "he's smashing up the Transfiguration Department!"

"Is he really?" she said, smiling sweetly. Cassy didn't like the look of that smile.

"Yes!" she said earnestly. "You better go stop him...now!"

"Yes, well, I will see what I can do about that. One minute. Stay here."

Ron and Cassy looked at each other, confused. Minutes later Umbridge was back – with a bunch of chunky Slytherins.

"Get them." said Umbridge smiling.

"Oh...shoot." Cassy exclaimed trying to dodge them, but only earning herself a hard and particularly painful punch in the stomach. She tried to retaliate – but she had never been strong, and he pulled her arms around her back.

"You don't move, got that? You know I could break your skinny little arms easily from this position..."

"I'm surprised you managed to fit so many _big words_ into a sentence you big oaf," said Cassy in a patronising voice, earning herself a painful warning jerk of the arm.

"Gag them," said Umbridge sweetly. The Slytherins did as they were told – Cassy's being particularly violent whilst doing so, ignoring her muffled objections.

Pleeease review now :)


	12. Chapter 12

_Bit of a filler chapter, but not to worry, the next ones will most definitely be more exciting!_

_I don't own Harry Potter!_

Ron, Cassy, Ginny, Luna and Neville were all dragged into Umbridge's office – Umbridge having left earlier to attend to Harry and Hermione. They were all gagged – Cassy couldn't breath through her mouth.

"Got 'em all," said Warrington, smirking, "_That_ one," he pointed at Neville, "tried to stop me taking _her,_" he pointed at Ginny, "so I brought him along too."

"Good, good," said Umbridge, apparently satisfied by her hard work, watching Ginny struggle against her Slytherin, "Well, it looks like Hogwarts will shortly be a Weasley-free zone, doesn't it?"

Malfoy laughed, in such an annoying way it made Cassy want to slap him. Umbridge grinned that toad like grin of hers.

"So, Potter," she said, "You stationed lookouts around my office, and you sent these two buffoons," she nodded at Ron and Cassy, "to tell me the poltergeist was wreaking havoc in the Transfiguration department when I knew perfectly well that he was busy smearing ink on the eyepieces of all the school telescopes – Mr. Filch having just informed me so." She smiled, clearly pleased with herself, "Clearly, it was very important for you to talk to somebody. Was it Albus Dumbledore? Or the half-breed, Hagrid? I doubt it was Minerva McGonagall, I hear she is still too ill to talk to anyone."

"It's none of your business who I talk to," Harry spat. _Good on you, Harry, _Cassy inwardly cheered, _you keep going strong, don't tell the old bat anything!_

"Very well. Very well, Potter. I offered you the chance to tell me freely. You refused. I have no alternative but to force you. Draco – fetch Professor Snape."

Malfoy grinned, and dashed off. Minutes later he returned, Snape in front of him.

"You wanted to see me, Headmistress?" he asked, looking around him.

"Ah, Professor Snape," she smiled, "Yes, I would like another bottle of Veritaserum, as quick as you can please."

"You took my last bottle to interrogate Marshall, and if I'm correct, Potter. Surely you did not use it all? I told you that three drops would be sufficient."

"You can make some more, can't you?"

"Certainly," Snape said, a snide smile forming on his face. "It takes a full moon cycle to mature, so I should have it ready for you in around a month," _Go Professor Snape! _Cassy thought wildly. As much as she disliked the man, right now he was being extremely helpful.

The two argued, and Cassy lost interest. She started wondering if she was ever going to get out of this mess...maybe Umbridge was going to kill them all. She really wouldn't put it past her. She was willing to use veritaserum on them – Cassy was pretty sure that was illegal. She didn't know to what lengths Umbridge would go to get at them...or just to tell her the truth.

"You are forcing me, Potter...I do not want to," said Umbridge, bringing Cassy back to the present circumstance, "but sometimes circumstances justify the use...I am sure the Minister will understand that I had no choice...The Cruciatus Curse aught to loosen your tongue,"

"No!" Hermione squealed, "Professor Umbridge – it's illegal!"

Umbridge ignored her.

"The Minister wouldn't want you to break the law, Professor Umbridge!" Hermione cried.

"What Cornelius doesn't know, won't hurt him," said Umbridge forcefully, "He never knew I ordered the Dementors to go after Potter last summer, but he was delighted to be given the chance to expel him, all the same."

"It was _you_! You sent the Dementors after me?" Harry exclaimed,

"_Somebody_ had to act. They were all bleating about silencing you somehow – discrediting you – but I was the one who actually did something about it...only you wriggled out of that one, didn't you Potter? Not today though, not now -" Cassy was disgusted. These people were meant to be ruling the country, and they had attitudes like _this​?_ It was horrible.

Umbridge pointed the wand at Harry's head - "_Cru-"_

"NO! No – Harry – we'll have to tell her!" Hermione screamed.

"No way!" Harry yelled.

"We'll have to Harry, she'll force it out of you anyway, what's...what's the point?"

"Well, well, well. Little Miss Question-all is going to give us some answers! Come on then, girl, come on!"

"Er – my – nee – no!" shouted Ron.

"I'm – I'm sorry everyone. But I can't stand it." Hermione started to cry softly into her hands.

"That's right, that's right girl. Now then...with whom was Potter communicating with just now?" Umbridge pulled Hermione to a seat.

"Well...well, he was _trying_ to speak to Professor Dumbledore." The whole room froze. That girl was honestly a genius. And a pretty good actor as well...

"Dumbledore? You know where Dumbledore is then?"

"Well...no! We've tried the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley and the Three Broomsticks and even the Hog's Head - "

"Idiot girl – Dumbledore won't be sitting in a pub when the whole Ministry's out looking for him!" _I wouldn't put it past him, _Cassy thought. _It would be just like Dumbledore to do something like that...and get away with it as well._

"But – but we needed to tell him something important!"

"Yes? What was it you wanted to tell him?"

"We...we wanted to tell him it's r – ready!"

"What's ready?" Umbridge demanded, grabbing Hermione's shoulders, and shaking them madly.

"The...the weapon," said Hermione.

"Weapon? Weapon? You have been developing some method of resistance? A weapon you could use against the Ministry? On Professor Dumbledore's orders, of course?"

"Y-y-yes, but he had to leave before it was finished and n-n-now we've finished it for him and we c-c-can't find him t-t-to tell him!"

"What kind of weapon is it?"  
"We don't r-r-really understand it. We just did what P-P-Professor Dumbledore told us t-t-to do."

"Lead me to the weapon."

"I'm not showing _them,_" Hermione said, glaring at the Slytherins.

"It is not for you to set conditions."

"Fine." Hermione said, "Fine, let them see it, I hope they use it on you! In fact, I wish you'd invite loads of people to come and see! That would serve you right – oh I'd love it if the whole school knew where it was and how to use it and then if you annoy any of them they'll be able to sort you out!"

Umbridge stared at Hermione for a while, these words obviously having a huge impact on her. She eventually smiled and spoke in a sweet voice.

"All right, dear, let's make it just you and me...and we'll take Potter, too, shall we? Get up, now."

"Professor Umbridge, I think some of the Squad should come with you to look after -"

"I am a fully qualified Ministry official Malfoy, do you really think I cannot manage to wandless teenagers alone?" Umbridge snapped, "In any case, it does not sound as though this weapon is something that schoolchildren should see. You will remain here until I return and make sure that none of these" she waved her hand madly around the room, "escape."

"All right." said Malfoy sulkily,

"And you two can go ahead of me and show me the way. Lead on."

The three of them walked out, leaving a silence in the room. Then Cassy looked at Ron, who looked at Ginny, who nodded subtly, who caught Neville's eyes.

"GO!" screamed Cassy, catching her Slytherin by surprise.

"_Stupefy!" _She shrieked, knocking out her capturer. "_Expelliarmus!" _she screamed, causing Malfoy's wand to go flying out his hand.

"_Impedimenta!_" Neville yelled, causing Malfoy to suddenly go in slow motion, "_Stupefy!" _Malfoy fell to the floor

"_Tarantallegra" _yelled Ron, Cassy thought it was the most random spell he could think of.

"_Batus Bogus!"(A/N, sorry it was the best I could thing of...) _screamed Ginny.

"Get the wands and run!" yelled Ron, and they all obeyed, not wanting to get caught up with the millions of bogeys now flying around in the air.

***

They ran as fast as they could, and eventually made it to the grounds. The stopped, gasping for breath. Then Cassy burst out laughing.

"That...was...so crazy...We just beat up...a bunch of...Slytherins..."

Everyone else joined in laughing, albeit a little hysterically, but laughing all the same.

"Nice bat bogey hex, Ginny," said Cassy, smiling.

"Thanks. Good Impediment Jinks Neville," Ginny grinned.

Neville blushed, "Thanks!"

"Guys, we need to go find Harry..."

"Oh yeah!"

They ran down to the forest, were they heard voices. Ron pulled them into a shadow, where they listened to what was going on.

"...planning to get to London?" said Hermione's voice.

"Yeah, we were just wondering that." said Ron, stepping out of the shadows.

_Please review!_


	13. Chapter 13

_New bit =) Please review!_

Riding a Thestral was the most bizarre thing Cassy had ever done, she decided. It was thrilling, it was scary, it was...just totally bizarre. She could feel the creature underneath her, but she couldn't _see_ it. It was a literal sense of testing her faith. It was absolutely _terrifying, _but at the same time, so much fun! Her stomach lurched as they started plummeting downwards – she screamed, she hadn't been expecting that. She heard Hermione shriek too, she seemed even more scared than Cassy was. She saw Harry turn in front of her – obviously to check that nobody had fallen to their death. Satisfied that they were all flying in mid air, he turned back round.

They all landed, Cassy landed next to Ginny, falling off ungraciously in the same way Ron just had. She let out a high-pitched squeak, causing Ron to stare incredulously at her. She just glared at him, and stood up, deciding that she was going to keep her dignity, if she had any left. If she had even ever had any...

"Where do we go from here, then?" Luna asked Harry politely.

"Over here," he led them over to a phone box. Cassy raised her eyebrows questioningly, but chose not to say anything, Harrys mood in consideration. "Come _on,_" he exclaimed as everyone hesitated.

They all squashed in, it was a bit like that muggle game – sardines.

"Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!" he commanded.

Ron did as he was ordered, awkwardly around two other people.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business." said a cool female voice, echoing all around them. This was all very bizarre.

"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Cassy Marshall, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood..." Harry babbled quickly, ",we're here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!"

"Thank you. Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."

Cassy took hers from Harry, glancing down at it. It said, _Cassy Marshall, Rescue Mission. _That almost made her laugh. Almost.

"Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wands for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium."

"Fine!" Harry shouted, "Now can we _move?" _

They were suddenly moving downwards, just when Cassy had thought that this day couldn't get any weirder. She pulled her wand out, getting ready to fire a spell whenever needed.

"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening." the door opened, and everyone fell out. There was a pretty fountain in the middle – but Harry gave them no time to admire.

"Come on," said Harry quietly, and they all sprinted after Harry.

Eventually they came to a plain black door.

"Let's go," Harry whispered, and led the way down the corridor towards it. He stopped about six feet away from the door.

"Okay, listen." he said, "Maybe...maybe a couple of people should stay here as a – as a lookout, and -"

Ginny raised her eyebrows, "And how're we going to let you know something's coming? You could be miles away."

"We're coming with you, Harry." said Neville quietly.

"Let's get on with it," muttered Ron.

Harry shrugged, and walked on. He pushed open the door easily.

***

_Quick note. I figured you wouldn't want to read all of this bit again – so I'm going to more exciting bits that _I_ can write, instead of just copying what the book says. It gets annoying, it doesn't feel creative, and it's really just very tiring. So anyhoo, I'm gonna start at the fight =)_

They had gotten split up. _How on earth did we manage that?_ thought Cassy as she ran. She realised pretty quickly she was on her own, with a fully grown Death Eater behind her. _I am sooo dead,_ she decided.

She stopped dead, and turned around, deciding the element of surprise might help.

"_Stupefy!" _she screamed, and the Death Eater fell straight to the ground.

"Thank goodness," she muttered shakily under her breath.

Suddenly, another one appeared out of thin air with a loud crack. He had apparated. Acting totally on instinct, she whipped her wand out and yelled: "_Expelliarmus!"_

The wand flew from his hand, but the half crazed look on his face told her that he wasn't stopping there. He ran towards her and leapt at her. She screamed, and he punched her on the mouth.

"Get. Off. Of. Me!" She growled, "_Stupefy!"_ The death eater went limp on top of her. She pushed him off, with a lot of effort, she wasn't exactly what you would call the strongest person in the world. Wiping her now bloodied mouth, she concentrated on finding the others.

She ran into the room with the veil – following the noise. She saw the fights going on, but couldn't take part – another death eater had jumped out of _nowhere_ and had decided to start battling furiously with her.

She suddenly heard Harry yell Sirius Blacks name. Turning around, she saw Sirius fall through the veil. Her opponent was also distracted, but recovered faster than her.

"_Expelliarmus!" _He shouted, her wand flying from her grasp.

"_Stupefy!" _She felt the beam of light hit her, and fell to the ground as everything went black, and she knew no more.

***

Cassy was allowed to leave the Hospital Wing as quickly as Ginny. She had only been stunned, and that was easy to mend, as were broken bones. They walked up to the Gryffindor Common Room, very subdued.

"Poor Harry." said Ginny breaking the silence.

"Yeah...he was...very close to Sirius?" Cassy asked.

"Yes." said Ginny, "He was the first real family he's ever had...it's gotta be hard."

Cassy could see the sadness on her face.

"You still like him." said Cassy. It was a statement, not a question.

Ginny sighed. "Yes, I do. Hermione told me just to wait...so that's what I'm doing."

Cassy smiled, "Smart girl Hermione. Full of brilliant ideas."

"She sure is." Ginny said, "But how did you know that I still liked him?" she asked.

"I dunno...I think it was something in your eyes."

She burst out laughing, "My _eyes?"_

"Yeah, your eyes! Eyes are awesome!"

"Fair enough..."

They lapsed into silence and continued the walk up to the Common Room. Once there, they avoided the questions from their classmates and went straight to bed.

_Please review!!_


	14. Chapter 14

_This is probably, the smallest bit in the history of fanfiction...I should have put it into the last chapter, but hey, I didn't think of that. No worries though, I need to tell you some stuff as well._

_First off, this part is finished. The whole thing is gonna be in two, possibly three parts. Hiding in the Shadows is part no. 1, as you know. The next part, will be the seventh year, and it will be called, In Hiding. Watch this space, you could say, because I will be posting it soon. =) _

_Thanks for all your support for this story, and I hope you keep on reading all the way to the end! Thanks, guys =)_

Cassy had to admit, the train home was a depressing journey. For Harry – it would be. His godfather had just died, and he would obviously be blaming himself for this. He always did. It was just in his nature. And his mood seemed to reflect onto everyone else. They were all sad to see Sirius go, but it was hardest for Harry. They got to Glasgow Central, the journey passing slowly, and Cassy said goodbye to her friends, who still had a long stretch ahead of them, and headed off with her parents. It had been a good year, full of ups and downs, but, she supposed, they could never get through a peaceful year at Hogwarts. That was just the way they rolled.


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